Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tehran on Sunday not to contemplate retaliatory strikes against American assets following a US bombing raid Saturday night against three top Iranian nuclear development sites.
Speaking with Fox Business Sunday Morning Futures news anchor Maria Bartiromo, Rubio emphasized that at present, the US is not at war with Iran.
This is not a war against Iran. This is – this is very simple. Sixty-seven days ago, the President of the United States sent the Iranians a letter and it said you’re not going to have nuclear weapons, you’re not going to have a militarized nuclear program, let’s negotiate, I want to do this diplomatically, I want to do this peacefully,” Rubio said.
“They played – they tried to play him along the way they’ve played every American president for the last 35 years. And the President told them if we don’t get a deal, which is what we wanted, then I’ll have to handle it differently. And that’s what he did last night. He handled it differently. But that was an Iranian choice. We didn’t make that choice. They did. By playing games with Donald Trump, they made a huge mistake, and President Trump acted last night,” the Secretary said, emphasizing that retaliation would be the “worst mistake” Iran could make.
“Look, we can fly in and out of Iran at will. We went in last night. The President sent our military forces from halfway across the world, went in, conducted this operation, left. Not a shot was fired against us. They didn’t even know what had happened by the time we left. The planes were out of their airspace before they finally started realizing they had been hit,” Rubio pointed out.
“So, it would be a terrible mistake if Iran retaliates. So, but that’s not our goal. This – we are not declaring war in Iran. We’re not looking for war in Iran. But if they attack us, then I think we have capabilities they haven’t even seen yet. It would be a terrible mistake on their part.”
Rubio added that the US has not ruled out a green light for a peaceful nuclear program in Iran.
“If what they want is a civil nuclear program where they have power plants like every other – a lot of other countries in the world have, they can do that,” he said.
“That’s the deal that’s been offered to them. They rejected it. They played us. They tried to play us, I should say. They wouldn’t respond to our offers. They disappeared for 10 days. And now we had to take – the President had to take action as a response.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Sunday following the American bombing raid that Tehran reserves the right to respond to the attack.
Speaking at a news conference Sunday on the sidelines of an OIC meeting in Istanbul, Araqchi claimed the US violated “all international rules and regulations” by striking the nuclear sites.
“The US must accept full responsibility for the dire consequences of such an aggressive measure,” he warned, adding that Tehran will employ “all possible and necessary tools and solutions” to ‘defend’ itself.
