US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the economic pressures on Iran have reached such an extent that military action is unnecessary at the present time, stressing that victory in the war is “a guarantee that it will never possess a nuclear weapon.”
“The economic pain we are inflicting on that regime is so great that there is no need for military action, because we have weakened them so much,” Rubio added, in a speech to the National Lawyers’ Conference organized by the Federalist Society in Washington.
In response to a question about the meaning of American victory, he said: “Victory is that they can never possess a nuclear weapon, one way or another,” explaining that this may be achieved by depriving them “of the money or equipment” necessary to manufacture it.
Rubio touched on the role of ideology and revolution in the approach of Iran’s rulers, saying that their country “has been waging war on the United States since 1979, whether we want to believe it or not,” and that the problem lies in its “revolutionary nature.” He explained that an “elected class” runs the government in Iran, and added: “I do not say that they are moderate,” but that those who lead the country are “a class of Shiite clerics, and they are not only Shiite clerics, but extremists,” who are driven by “religious ideology” in their decisions, as he put it.
He stressed: “These are not the rulers of Iran. They do not care what the Iranian economy looks like. “These are revolutionaries.” He pointed out that the founding documents of the Islamic Republic stipulate that the guide’s mission is “to export the revolution.”
Rubio enumerated the aspects of “exporting the revolution,” starting with “Hezbollah,” which he said Iran created, financed, and helped develop capabilities “comparable to the capabilities of a state,” until it became, in many cases, “stronger than the Lebanese state.”
He recalled that Hezbollah itself bombed a US Marine barracks, “killing more than 280” soldiers, pointing out that it is still carrying out “terrorist acts to this day.”
As for the militias in Iraq, he said that they “are planning, at this moment, and have planned for years” to attack the United States and neighboring countries “with very advanced weapons.”
He held Iran responsible for the destruction of Syria, saying that Sunnis, Shiites, Christians, Druze, Bedouins, and Alawites lived side by side in it, before it became an “Iran-backed dictatorship.”
He described Iran as “the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world,” adding that “no country in the history of humanity has spent as much time and money on sponsoring terrorism as the Iranian regime has spent.”
He cited Hezbollah's bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in the early 1990s, "in the hemisphere in which we live."
Rubio moved to the nuclear file, saying: “These people want a nuclear weapon.” They will always say they are not interested in it. “No, they are only interested in everything you need to make a nuclear weapon.”
He added that Iran “built missiles for nuclear weapons” and “enriches uranium far beyond what is needed,” noting that it could have obtained nuclear energy “as South Korea and Japan do” if that was what it wanted.
He likened the Iranian position to someone who says: “I am not interested in committing a violent act, I just want to buy ammunition and a rifle,” continuing: “The ammunition is not in the rifle, but putting it in it takes a second to become a weapon capable of killing, and this is what they did.”
He believed that years of “neglect” allowed Iran to build “a lot of missiles and a lot of drones,” to hide “behind this traditional shield” and do whatever it wants with its nuclear capability.
However, Rubio acknowledged that the war was unpopular, saying: “It had to be addressed, and I know it's unpopular. “Believe me, no war is popular.”
He believed that ignoring the file was “the easiest thing” for Trump to do: “four years in office, then leave the matter to the next person.” But Trump “inherited this, and said I will not leave it unaddressed,” even though it “causes pain, economically and otherwise,” according to Rubio.
Rubio warned that Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon would be more dangerous, asking: "Do you think that their shooting at ships in the Strait of Hormuz is a bad thing now, even though 13 to 14 million barrels come out every night?" He added: “Imagine if they had a nuclear weapon.” They will hold the entire region hostage. They will hold this nation hostage.”
He compared Iran to North Korea, explaining that its leader “does not seek to invade Japan,” and that he “only wants his regime to survive,” adding: “I do not justify the terrible things that happened there.”
As for Iran’s leaders, he said that they are “expansionists...revolutionaries.” What if they had a nuclear weapon? He concluded that “every major problem in the Middle East” has “one common denominator: the Shiite clerics in Iran and their expansionist mentality.”
A number of these problems include the Houthi attacks, the militias that destabilize Iraq, the forces that supported Assad and destroyed Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He described this as “an exceptional historical danger that cannot be ignored,” warning that it “will arrive in the end and threaten our country,” because “nothing is half a world away anymore.”
In addition, Rubio accused the Iranian authorities of killing “tens and tens of thousands” of its citizens and “slaughtering them in the streets,” saying: “When you are injured, they enter hospitals and kill you in your bed, and they often kill the doctors and nurses who treated you.”
He continued: “This is what they do to their people.” Imagine what they would do to us if they possessed a nuclear weapon,” stressing that Washington “cannot allow” the Americans to inherit “a world in which they possess a nuclear weapon.”
Rubio spoke the day after Trump said, on Thursday, that his country “does not need an agreement with Iran,” asking his deputy, J.D. Vance, who was leading the negotiations with Tehran, to devote himself to internal issues.
Vance had held the war responsible for the Republicans' loss of the midterm elections, writing on the "X" platform: "The reason we lost is the war."
Trump said, in a radio interview on Thursday, that it would be a defeat for “Iran’s lunatics” to remain in power after his term, adding that he would not hesitate to use force: “It is possible for me to do that now.”
In another interview, Trump said that countries had asked him to refrain from broader strikes, stressing that he was capable of destroying Iranian energy facilities, bridges, and factories “in three days.” A day before that, he said that his country wanted “a complete victory, not a 93 percent victory.”
Tehran says that its nuclear program is peaceful, even though, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state that has produced uranium enriched by 60 percent.
