Rubio: Iran is now more willing to reach a nuclear disarmament agreement following U.S. strikes.
Rubio: Trump prevented Iran from achieving a “missile shield” and altered the course of the confrontation.
اضافة اعلان
Rubio: Washington’s objective is to change Iran’s behavior, not its regime.
Rubio: Iran has lost its defensive umbrella, allowing the United States to negotiate from a position of strength.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration of President Donald Trump has fundamentally changed the dynamics of the confrontation with Iran by targeting its military capabilities, arguing that Tehran is now more willing to negotiate a nuclear disarmament agreement.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Rubio stressed that Washington’s objective has never been regime change, but rather a change in the Iranian government’s behavior. He also said Gulf countries increasingly view Iran as a direct security threat and predicted that global energy exports would become less dependent on the Strait of Hormuz.
Rubio said the Iranian leadership “has never faced a president like Donald Trump,” arguing that for decades Tehran had become accustomed to avoiding the consequences of what he described as deception, broken agreements, and misleading negotiations.
He claimed that Iran had been pursuing a nuclear weapons capability while simultaneously building what he described as a “conventional missile shield” to protect itself. According to Rubio, Tehran had hoped that within roughly 18 months it would possess a large arsenal of drones and missiles that would make defending against them extremely difficult.
Rubio said President Trump decided to prevent Iran from reaching that stage by authorizing strikes against the country’s navy, air force, air defense systems, missile launch platforms, and weapons production facilities, adding that the operations inflicted severe damage on Iran’s military capabilities.
While acknowledging that Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of causing damage, Rubio argued that it has lost the “conventional defensive umbrella” it had sought to build, fundamentally changing the strategic balance.
He said this shift explains why Tehran now appears ready—and at times eager—to conclude agreements on nuclear disarmament as well as maritime navigation, adding that the United States is now negotiating “from a position of strength rather than weakness.”
Asked whether regime change remained a U.S. objective, Rubio replied that “regime change was never the goal,” but added that “the regime itself must change.”
He argued that Iran’s leadership has historically pursued an expansionist policy aimed not only at governing Iran but also at extending its influence across the region and exporting its revolution.
According to Rubio, changing that behavior requires making the cost of such policies greater than Iran is willing or able to bear.
Discussing the Gulf region, Rubio said Gulf states had long recognized the Iranian threat, but that it had now become tangible after witnessing Iranian drones and missiles targeting their cities and energy infrastructure.
He also predicted that the world would increasingly diversify its energy export routes away from the Strait of Hormuz, while noting that Iran would remain geographically positioned along the strategic waterway regardless of who governs the country.
Rubio concluded that one of the lasting consequences of recent events would be a restructuring of global energy flows to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, alongside a growing regional consensus that Iran represents a direct threat to regional security and economic interests as long as its current religious leadership remains in power.
