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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US attacked Iran because they knew Israel was going to launch a military strike, and the Trump administration worried about retaliation from Tehran.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill after briefing lawmakers. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.”
He described Iran as an “imminent threat.”
Follow The Post’s live coverage of the United States’ airstrikes on Iran
“We knew that Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow,” he said, adding: “Had we not done so, they would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen.”
Rubio also said the objective was not regime change, but ending Iran’s missile program.
“The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can’t rebuild, and make sure that they can’t hide behind that to have a nuclear program,” he said.
But he said there was no issue with the Ayatollah being killed.
“We would love for there to be an Iran that’s not governed by radical Shia clerics,” he said.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the United States’ airstrikes on Iran:
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“While we would love to see a new regime,” he added. “The bottom line is, no matter who governs that country a year from now, they’re not going to have these ballistic missiles.”
English (US)