Reference News Network, March 4 report: According to the website of the U.S. magazine "Foreign Policy", on March 3, it was reported that since the United States and Israel jointly carried out air strikes against Iran, the Trump administration has put forward a series of contradictory justifications for the war.

The latest statement came out on Tuesday: President Trump said that the war was launched because he believed Iran was about to attack Israel and "other countries".

Trump told reporters in the White House's Oval Office: "We were negotiating with these lunatics (referring to the nuclear negotiations with Iran). I judged they would strike first. If we didn't act preemptively, they would launch the attack first. I am absolutely convinced of this."

But less than 24 hours after Trump made this statement, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio stated that the United States took preemptive action because it learned that Israel was about to strike Iran, and Washington expected Iran to retaliate by attacking U.S. troops.

Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday: "We knew Israel would take action. We were clear that this would trigger attacks against U.S. troops. We also understood that if we did not act preemptively before they struck, we would suffer greater casualties." But he refused to admit that Israel had forced the United States to act, and emphasized that the U.S. military action "had to be carried out regardless." He said that Israel's upcoming action only explained why the United States acted at this time.

Subsequently, Republican members of the U.S. Congress echoed and reinforced Rubio's statement, effectively attributing the responsibility of drawing the United States into the conflict to Israel. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Monday: "Due to Israel's insistence on taking action, regardless of whether the United States participated or not, our president and government... had to make a very difficult decision." (Translated by Wu Mei)

Original source: toutiao.com/article/7613397473796620840/

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