Iran rejects US 'preemptive strike' theory and denies any threat: 'They decided to go to war for Israel'

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, rejected on Tuesday Marco Rubio's accusations regarding an imminent attack on the USA, according to EFE, quoted by Agerpres.

“Rubio admitted something we all knew: The United States decided to go to war on behalf of Israel. There was never an alleged threat by Iran against the United States,” the Iranian official relayed on X.

The head of Iranian diplomacy added that the “bloodshed of Americans and Iranians” is the responsibility of those who believe in “Israel first”.

Abbas Araqchi's reply comes after Marco Rubio described Saturday's offensive as a “preemptive” action. The US secretary of state said on Monday that Washington struck first because the Islamic Republic was preparing to attack US positions in the region.

“We knew Israel was going to take action. We knew it would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't pre-emptively attack them before they launched these attacks, we would suffer far greater casualties,” Rubio said.

“The imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked – and we believed it would be – it would retaliate immediately and we were not going to stand by and take the hit before we responded,” he added.

For his part, Donald Trump also said on Monday, in a press conference, that he made the decision for military intervention in Iran in order to stop the regime in Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

“After we eliminated their nuclear program a few months ago, we asked Iran not to try to rebuild its nuclear facilities, but they ignored us. The regime was rapidly, dramatically, even building up its ballistic arsenal and threatening our bases outside the country. They had the ability to strike both our bases in the region and European bases,” the US president said.

“An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would represent an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people. Our country itself would have been threatened, and was very close to being threatened,” the American leader pointed out.

President Trump has insisted that the joint operation launched by the US and Israel against Iran represents the “best chance” to counter the threats posed by the Tehran regime. He also said the war could last five weeks, but there was also a risk it could drag on “much longer”.