Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday said that comments made hours earlier by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio showed that the US "entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel."
Rubio on Monday said that Washington's attacks on Iran were a proactive measure for the United States' own protection ahead of an "imminent threat."
"We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action," Rubio told reporters in Washington.
"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."
Araghchi said that "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'," adding that the "shedding of both American and Iranian blood" is therefore on Israel.
"American people deserve better and should take back their country," the Iranian minister continued in a post on X.
The United States and Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Iran on Saturday, sparking a regional escalation as Tehran fired missiles at US bases in several Gulf states.
