'US attacked Iran 'pre-emptively' after learning of Israel plans': Marco Rubio

The United States carried out what it described as a ‘pre-emptive’ strike on Iran on Saturday (February 28) after learning that its ally Israel was preparing to launch an attack, a move that Washington believed would trigger retaliation against American forces, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday (March 2). "We knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties," Rubio told reporters on Monday.

While expressing support for regime change in Tehran, Rubio clarified that toppling Iran’s Islamic leadership is not the stated objective of the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign. "We hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country. We would love for that to be possible," Rubio told reporters.

"But the objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and of their naval capabilities," he said.

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Responding to Iranian claims that 168 people were killed in an alleged US-Israeli strike, Rubio said the United States does not intentionally target civilian infrastructure such as schools and stressed that the Pentagon is reviewing the reported incident. "The United States would not deliberately target a school. Our objectives are missiles, both the ability to manufacture them and the ability to launch them," Rubio told reporters, while adding that the Pentagon was investigating the alleged incident.

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