U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. File
| Picture Credit score: AP
Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to journey to Israel subsequent week to replace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, two Trump administration officers mentioned.
Mr. Rubio is predicted to fulfill with Netanyahu on February 28, in accordance with the officers, who spoke Wednesday (February 18, 2026) on situation of anonymity to element journey plans that haven’t but been introduced.
The U.S. and Iran lately have held two rounds of oblique talks over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Officers from each side publicly supplied some muted optimism about progress this week, with Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi even saying that “a brand new window has opened” for reaching an settlement.
“In some methods, it went nicely,” U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance mentioned in regards to the talks in an interview Tuesday (February 17, 2026) with Fox Information Channel. “However in different methods, it was very clear that the president has set some purple strains that the Iranians are usually not but prepared to truly acknowledge and work by way of.”
Mr. Netanyahu visited the White Home final week to induce President Donald Trump to make sure that any deal about Iran’s nuclear programme additionally embrace steps to neutralise Iran’s ballistic missile program and finish its funding for proxy teams equivalent to Hamas and Hezbollah.
Mr. Trump is weighing whether or not to take navy motion towards Tehran because the administration surges navy sources to the area, elevating issues that any assault might spiral into a bigger battle within the Center East.
Final week, Mr. Trump advised reporters {that a} change in energy in Iran “looks like that might be the perfect factor that might occur.” He added, “For 47 years, they have been speaking and speaking and speaking.”
The Trump administration has dispatched the usGerald R. Ford, the world’s largest plane provider, from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to hitch a second provider in addition to different warships and navy belongings that the U.S. has constructed up within the area.
Dozens of U.S. fighter jets, together with F-35s, F-22s and F-16s, have left bases within the U.S. and Europe in current days to go to the Center East, in accordance with the Navy Air Monitoring Alliance, a crew of about 30 open-source analysts that routinely analyses navy and authorities flight exercise.
The crew says it is also tracked greater than 85 gas tankers and over 170 cargo planes heading into the area.
Steffan Watkins, a researcher primarily based in Canada and a member of the MATA, mentioned he additionally has noticed assist plane like six of the navy’s early-warning E-3 plane head to a base in Saudi Arabia.
These plane are key for coordinating operations with a lot of plane. He says they have been pulled from bases in Japan, Germany and Hawaii.
Printed – February 19, 2026 10:25 am IST