US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel on Saturday, February 28, amid rising tensions with Iran, a source in US President Donald Trump's administration told AFP on Wednesday.
Rubio will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The US secretary of state's trip comes a week after the inaugural meeting of President Trump's "peace council" later today in Washington, and as the Republican administration has said, Iran would "do well" to reach a deal with it to avoid a US military strike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington last week for talks with Donald Trump, wants a tough stance against the Islamic Republic.
The US president has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military intervention if talks fail to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear program.
The US and Iran, sworn enemies for four decades, resumed talks in Oman on February 6 for the first time since the 12-day war in June, which was launched by Israel and in which US armed forces were involved for one day, bombing three key Iranian nuclear facilities.
They concluded the second round of indirect negotiations brokered by Iran in Geneva on Tuesday, against the backdrop of intensifying deployment of US military assets in the Persian Gulf.
After talks in Switzerland, the two governments announced that they would continue negotiations – which had been frozen due to the June war – stressing, however, that they are far from reaching a rapprochement in their positions.
