US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Tel Aviv late on Saturday in his first visit to the Middle East.
The secretary landed in Israel as top US and Israeli officials work to secure the release of the remaining six living hostages in phase one of the ceasefire deal.
Before the Saturday release of former hostages Alexander Sasha Troufanov, Sagui Dekel Chen, and Iair Horn, Trump said that if the hostages weren’t returned by 12 p.m. Saturday EST, 7 p.m. Israel Standard Time, then the US would “back” whatever decision Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made.
Rubio’s visit to the Middle East has been in the works for at least a month. The State Department said he would go to the Munich Security Conference, then Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia from February 13-18.
Rubio’s pro-Israel policies
Rubio has started his term as the highest-ranking American diplomat with strong policies in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s “America First” campaign promises.
He has also said that the Trump administration will be a stallwart supporter of Israel.
“Without speaking out of turn, I’m confident in saying that President Trump’s administration will continue to be perhaps the most pro-Israel administration in American history,” Rubio told reporters in January.
Rubio backed Trump’s controversial plan to rehabilitate Gaza in a recent interview on SiriusXM Patriot.
“Someone’s got to go in – for anybody to be able to live there, someone’s got to – you’ve got to clean it up,” Rubio said. “You’ve got to clean all that out of there even before you begin the process of removing rubble and debris and rebuilding housing, like permanent structures. Who’s going to do that?”
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