New Delhi, March 3 -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday presented a strikingly new narrative of how the conflict started, saying that the United States joined only after learning that ally Israel was set to strike Iran.

He said that although the US and Israel jointly attacked Iran first, Washington was acting to thwart an immediate threat because Israel was going to strike Iran on its own, anyway.

Iran was ready to strike US forces in the region in response to Israel, so Trump decided to strike "pre-emptively" alongside Israel.

Rubio told reporters, "The president made the very wise decision-we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew...