'This had to happen': Rubio suggests Israeli plans behind Operation Epic Fury, invites backlash

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday defended the Trump administration's decision to launch a joint military offensive against Iran, describing the campaign as a "preemptive" necessity triggered by Israel's own plans to strike. However, his statement, delivered to reporters on Capitol Hill, has intensified a debate within the Republican party over the "America First" doctrine and the scope of U.S. military commitments in the Middle East—something President Donald Trump had promised to rein in. "The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran's short-range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy, particularly to naval assets," Rubio said. "That is what it is focused on doing right now and it’s doing quite successfully."

Rubio's justification for the timing of the strikes, dubbed 'Operation Epic Fury', rested on what he termed an "imminent threat" created by the certainty of an Israeli-led escalation. "There absolutely was an imminent threat," Rubio said, adding, "The imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked—and we believe they would be attacked—that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded."

"We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. This had to happen, no matter what," the Secretary of State said, inviting sharp rebukes from both domestic critics and foreign adversaries, who argue the administration has entered a "war of choice" to protect Israeli interests.

Soon after Rubio made the statements, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took to social media to write, "Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: U.S. has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel…There was never any so-called Iranian 'threat.' Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters." In the U.S., Democratic leaders also lashed out at the Trump administration for starting a war that they believe is against America's interests. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the conflict "Trump's war," stating, "This is a war of choice. He has no strategy, he has no endgame."

Senator Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned the legal and strategic definitions used by the State Department. "There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel," Warner said. "If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States, then we are in uncharted territory."

Rubio, however, maintained that the operation was necessary to prevent Iran from reaching a "line of immunity" regarding its military technology. "This operation needed to happen because Iran in about a year or a year and a half would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it because they could hold the whole world hostage," he told reporters.