Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared with Fox News what he believes to be the greatest “impediment” to reaching an agreement with Iran.
“Other than the fact that the country is run by radical Shia clerics, that’s a pretty big impediment,” he said. “The other is that they’re deeply fractured internally, and I think that’s always been the case, but I think it’s far more pronounced now. The best way to understand Iran is you have a political class now. I think, look, people talk about moderates and hardliners. They’re all hardliners in Iran. But there are hardliners who understand they have to run a country and an economy, and there are hardliners that are completely motivated by theology.”
Describing those he called “hardliners” with a theological motivation, Rubio said, “Unfortunately, the hardliners with an apocalyptic vision of the future have the ultimate power in that country,” he added. “So as much as anything else, one of the impediments here is that our negotiators aren’t just negotiating with Iranians. Those Iranians then have to negotiate with other Iranians in order to figure out what they can agree to, what they can offer, what they’re willing to do, even who they’re willing to meet with.”
Rubio further explained that he believes Iran is becoming “serious about getting themselves out of the mess that they’re in, there are all the problems Iran had.”
“Price inflation is worse. They still have a drought going on. They still have trouble making payroll,” he stated. “Their economies flattened, they face crippling economic sanctions around the world. All those problems are there and many of them are worse. And now they have half the missiles, none of the factories, and no navy and no air force. All of that’s been destroyed. So they’re worse off and weaker.”
In March, Rubio revealed there were “fractures” in Iranian leadership.
