Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Iran is a “grave threat” to the United States.
Discussing expectations for Iran negotiations, Rubio said, “I want you to understand and everyone should know that Iran poses a very grave threat to the United States and has for a very long time. They are in possession – first and foremost, after their nuclear program was obliterated, they were told not to try to restart it, and here they are. You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it. They’re not enriching right now, but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”
He noted that Iran is in possession of a “very large number of ballistic missiles, particularly short-range ballistic missiles that threaten the United States and our bases in the region and our partners in the region, and all of our bases in the UAE, in Qatar, in Bahrain.” Iran also has naval assets threatening the U.S. Navy.
“So I want everybody to understand that, and beyond just the nuclear program they possess these conventional weapons that are solely designed to attack America and attack Americans, if they so choose to do so,” he said. “These things have to be addressed.”
Rubio went on to state that Iran’s refusal to talk about ballistic missiles is a “big problem.”
Ahead of nuclear discussions, the Trump administration expanded sanctions on Iran, saying the regime “continues to mismanage its economy, with catastrophic consequences for its people, and prioritizes funding of foreign proxies and missiles over the basic needs of ordinary Iranians.”
