Senator Marco Rubio addressed questions surrounding the recent U.S. military strike on Iran, outlining the reasoning behind the operation and describing it as a response to what he characterized as a growing and unacceptable threat tied to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and expanding missile and drone capabilities.

Rubio said the decision to strike Iran was rooted in longstanding concerns about the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, arguing that its actions have consistently contradicted claims that its program is intended solely for energy production.

“Many Americans are asking, why did the United States have to attack Iran? Now, well, let me explain. Iran wants to have nuclear weapons. Of that, there is zero doubt if what they truly wanted, which is what they claim is nuclear energy,” Rubio said.

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He pointed to differences between Iran’s approach and that of other countries that operate civilian nuclear programs, noting that such programs typically rely on imported fuel and above-ground facilities.

“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, the same equipment that they could use to enrich material for energy they could use to quickly enrich it to weapons grade,” Rubio said.

Rubio said Iran has repeatedly rejected opportunities to pursue a civilian nuclear program under internationally accepted conditions.

“So it is clear that they’ve been offered every opportunity to have a nuclear program that allows them to have energy, not weapons, and every single time they have turned it down,” he said.

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He also described what he called a parallel effort by Iran to develop a large-scale missile and drone arsenal, which he argued would serve as a protective barrier for its nuclear program.

“But why the attack now? Well, what was Iran trying to do? Iran was trying to build a conventional shield. In essence, have so many missiles, have so many drones that no one could attack them, and they were well on their way,” Rubio said.

Rubio said that buildup posed an increasing risk, warning that it could have prevented any future effort to stop Iran’s nuclear development.

“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,” he said.

He described Iran’s leadership as a central concern in the broader threat assessment.

“Under no circumstances can a country run by radical Shia clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future ever possess nuclear weapons, 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,” Rubio said.

Rubio characterized the strike as a preemptive move aimed at dismantling that capability before it could fully take shape.

“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,” Rubio said.

He said the objective of the operation was focused on degrading Iran’s military capacity tied to missiles and drones, forcing the country to engage more directly with international demands regarding its nuclear program.

“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.

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