Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been tasked with many responsibilities since President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025. In addition to his duties as secretary of state, he is also the acting national security advisor, appointed to the position to replace Mike Waltz. On Wednesday, the White House gave Rubio his latest assignment: to clarify messaging about the military operation in Iran. He did so in a video posted to the White House’s social media accounts.
“Many Americans are asking, ‘Why did the United States have to attack Iran now?’” Rubio said in the opening of the video clip. “Well, let me explain.”
“Iran wants to have nuclear weapons,” Rubio said. “Of that, there is zero doubt. If what they truly wanted, which is what they claim, is nuclear energy, well they could have nuclear energy like all the other countries in the world have it, and that is you import the fuel, and you build reactors above ground. That’s not what Iran has done.”
“They build their reactors and their facilities deep in mountains, away from the public glare, and they want to enrich that material,” Rubio said. “The same equipment that they can use to enrich material for energy, they can use to quickly enrich it to weapons-grade. So it’s been clear they’ve been offered every opportunity to have a nuclear program that allows it to have energy, not weapons, and every single time they have turned it down.”
“But, why the attack now?” Rubio said. “Well, what was Iran trying to do? Iran was trying to build a conventional shield, and in essence have so many missiles, have so many drones, that no one could attack them, and they were well on their way. We were on the verge of an Iran that had so many missiles and so many drones that no one could do anything about their nuclear weapons program in the future. That was an intolerable risk.”
Rubio then explained the reasoning behind the decision to attack Iran with the launch of Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28. In doing so, the secretary of state emphasized that it was about risk calculation, emphasizing that it was too dangerous a proposition to allow Iran to fortify its air defenses while rehabilitating and enhancing its nuclear weapons programs. He called it the “last best chance” to counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions effectively.
HOUTHIS’ ENTRY INTO IRAN WAR COULD HAVE SIGNIFICANT REVERBERATIONS
“Under no circumstances can a country run by radical Shiite clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future ever possess nuclear weapons,” Rubio said. “And under no circumstances can they be allowed to hide and protect that program and their ambitions behind a shield of missiles and drones that no one can do anything about. This was our last best chance to eliminate that conventional threat, that conventional shield that they were trying to build and the president made the right decision to wipe it out now.”
“That is the goal of this operation to destroy their conventional missiles and their drone program, so they can’t hide behind it and finally have to deal with the world seriously about never, ever having nuclear weapons,” Rubio said.
