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3. Rubio to Visit Israel Next Week to Discuss Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza

The U.S. Department of State announced on Friday that Secretary Marco Rubio will travel to Israel next week to discuss regional issues.

“The Secretary will discuss a range of regional priorities including Iran, Lebanon, and ongoing efforts to implement President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan for Gaza,” the State Department statement said.

The upcoming trip occurs amid the backdrop of increased uncertainty over whether war with Iran is imminent as the U.S. and Israel coordinate positions towards the country.

Israeli officials have expressed doubt over the viability of nuclear talks with Iran, and adopted a position of intervention in Iran should it decide that negotiations inadequately addressed security issues.

Israel has insisted that the ballistic missile and proxy network issues be included in negotiations alongside the nuclear issue.

Earlier this week, the U.S. ordered the evacuation of all non-essential personnel from its embassy in Beirut. On Friday, U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee authorized U.S. embassy staff to leave Israel should they wish to do so.

While another meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials is slated to take place next week at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. special advisor Jared Kushner expressed disappointment in the dialogue’s morning session, according to Axios. 

On Thursday, Rubio spoke on Iran in a series of X posts, emphasizing Iran’s role as a threat to the U.S. and suggesting that the U.S. would not be satisfied with a deal solely addressing the nuclear issue.

“Iran poses a very great threat to the United States, and has for a very long time,” he expressed, “hopefully the talks are productive but eventually we’ll need to have conversations about more than just the nuclear program.”

Rubio reignited the ballistic missile issue, stating that “somehow they still find the money to invest in missiles of greater capacity every year” and that Iran is “an unsustainable threat.”

Trump touched on these issues in his State of the Union speech, where he said that “Iran is working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America” and that he “will never allow the world‘s number one sponsor of terror—which they are by far—to have a nuclear weapon.”

The resurfacing of other demands in rhetoric from the Trump administration suggests that negotiations with Iran may be losing some of their momentum.