Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the case against Iran to the world’s biggest economies on Saturday. Speaking at a news conference at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Rubio said: “The message is simple. Iran is blowing up ships, including ships that have, for example, Indian sailors on them, including ships that have energy that’s destined for countries represented at that table.”
“We live in a world in which… a regime is openly saying we will blow up commercial ships,” Rubio said. “Think about that. It sounds like something from 100 years ago or 80 years ago. That’s what’s happening, and every country there is challenged.”
On diplomacy, Rubio said talks “have actually never stopped,” both directly and through intermediaries, and that the timing is up to the President. “The president’s preference in any challenge around the world is to try to solve it diplomatically and peacefully, if possible,” he said. “But obviously, it can’t be one that endangers our national security or one that doesn’t meet our core concerns.”
Rubio said Iran has “clearly” shown it wants to be a nuclear weapons power, “and that can never be allowed to happen.” He added that the regime is at the center of the region’s chaos: Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis attacking Saudi Arabia, and Iranian-backed militias challenging the state in Iraq. “Anywhere you turn, what you find is some Iranian proxy that’s undermining the peace and stability.”
“This is a regime that’s massacred its own people,” Rubio said. “You can only imagine what it would do to others if they possess weapons of mass destruction, which will never be allowed to happen as long as President Trump is in the White House.” That is the line, and the whole world just heard it.
