New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after a Congressional briefing that among the reasons why the US’s attack of Iran was necessary,was the fact that “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.” He went on, “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”Al Jazeera reports that Rubio’s comments came “minutes before the US military confirmed that its death toll from the conflict has risen to six, after two bodies were recovered from a regional facility struck by Iran.”The remarks have set the cat amongst the pigeons about what should constitute reasons for attacking first. “There absolutely was an imminent threat,” Rubio said as justification for US-Israel going in first, “And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked – and we believed they would be attacked – that they would immediately come after us.”But criticism for unclear reasons for what constitutes an ‘imminent threat, Rubio’s Iranian counterpart, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, has jumped into the debate and said, that Rubio’s statements prove that there never was an Iranian threat to the US at all. “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.”Hitting back at President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging of the Iranian people to revolt against the present government in Tehran, Araghchi added, “American people deserve better and should take back their country.”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.American people deserve better and should take back their country.— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 3, 2026The Guardian reports that Mark Warner, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said he was worried now if the US was allowing Israel to force it into a new war.“There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States, then we are in uncharted territory,” Warner is quoted as saying.“This is Trump’s war. This is a war of choice. He has no strategy, he has no endgame,” the Senate’s Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer is reported to have saidAlmost all of West Asia is currently embroiled in the war triggered off by US-Israel attacking Iran and assassinating their Supreme Leader, who was also recognised as a religious leader in the Islamic world. US missions have been clearing out and urging citizens to clear out.