Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, is among the least controversial of Trump’s nominees, and the vote in his favor was decisive, 99 to none.
Another pick, John Ratcliffe as director of the CIA, is also expected to receive a quick vote.
Action on other candidates, including Peter Hegseth, a veteran and Fox News host, for defense secretary, is expected later in the week.
“Marco Rubio is a very smart man and has a wonderful understanding of American foreign policy,” Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said as the session opened.
Rubio, a member of the Senate since 2011, is described as a “traditional foreign policy hawk,” according to the American Washington Post, as he “built his political identity around supporting the overthrow of hard-line governments, from Latin America to the Middle East to Asia.”
Regarding the Israeli issue, Rubio repeatedly expressed his support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and for his military action against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and accused President Joe Biden’s administration of “not doing enough to support its ally.”
-He also condemned the decisions of some Western allies to suspend or restrict arms exports to Israel due to potential violations of international humanitarian law, as “undermining its ability to defend itself.”
After the US State Department imposed sanctions in August on Israeli entities that it said were involved in “extremist settler violence” in the West Bank, Rubio said that the State Department was “undermining an American ally.”
Regarding his position on Iran, Rubio has strong hostility towards Tehran, and has previously described the “Iranian regime” as “terrorist.”
In a statement issued on October 1, after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel, Rubio said that he supports “Israel’s right to respond disproportionately to stop this threat,” without specifying what that might entail, adding that “without Iran There is no Hamas. Without Iran, there is no Hezbollah.”
Last February, Rubio said, “The rise of an axis led by China, Russia, and Iran is the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States.”
