Officials say Rubio plans to update Netanyahu on US-Iran talks in Israel next week

Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to travel to Israel next week to update Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on US-Iran nuclear talks, two Trump administration officials said.

Mr. Rubio is expected to meet with Netanyahu on Feb. 28, the officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss details of travel plans that have yet to be announced on Wednesday (Feb. 18, 2026).

The US and Iran have held two rounds of indirect talks recently over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Officials on both sides publicly offered some muted optimism about progress this week, with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghi even saying a “new window has opened” to a deal.

“In some ways, it went well,” US Vice President JD Vance said of the talks in an interview on Tuesday (Feb 17, 2026). Fox News Channel. “But in other ways, it’s very clear that the president has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to recognize and act upon.”

Mr Netanyahu visited the White House last week and urged President Donald Trump to include measures to neutralize Iran’s ballistic missile program and end funding to proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah in any deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr Trump is weighing whether to take military action against Tehran as the administration ramps up military resources in the region, raising concerns that any attack could trigger a major conflict in the Middle East.

Last week, Mr. Trump told reporters that a change of power in Iran “looks like the best thing that could happen.” “For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking,” he said.

The Trump administration sent the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East to join a second carrier to include other warships and military assets built in the region.

Dozens of US fighter jets, including F-35s, F-22s and F-16s, have left bases in the US and Europe for the Middle East in recent days, according to the Military Air Tracking Alliance, a group of about 30 open-source analysts that routinely analyze military and government aircraft activity.

The team said it also tracked the passage of over 85 fuel tankers and over 170 cargo planes into the region.

Stefan Watkins, a researcher based in Canada and a member of MATA, said he also spotted support aircraft such as the army’s six early warning E-3 aircraft to a base in Saudi Arabia.

Those aircraft are critical for coordinating operations with a large number of aircraft. He said they were drawn from bases in Japan, Germany and Hawaii.