June 19 (UPI) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Thursday discussed the conflict between Israel and Iran and agreed that Iran should never possess a nuclear weapon, the State Department said.
The meeting in Washington, D.C., comes amid speculation that President Donald Trump will join Israel in its ongoing strikes against Iran.
“I may do it. I may not do it,” Trump told a group of reporters after returning to the White House following a G7 summit in Canada. “I mean nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Israel and Iran have been in a proxy war for years, though it exploded into the open following Tehran-backed Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Last week, the fighting intensified with Israel launching a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, crippling the infrastructure and killing several top Iran military personnel and nuclear scientists.
Iran — which does not have a nuclear weapon and states its nuclear program is peaceful — has responded with strikes of its on.
Washington-based Human Rights Activists has said that at least 639 people have died in the Israeli strikes on Iran, 263 of them civilians.
Israel warned Thursday that it was targeting the area near the Arak heavy water reactor, about 155 miles west of Tehran. Israeli officials warned people on X to evacuate the area.
Rubio and Lammy also discussed other issues, including ways to cooperate on ending the current three-year war between Ukraine and Russia.
The pair also talked about an upcoming NATO summit and reaffirmed the importance of increased defense spending to secure peace and stability.
