On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the U.S. attacks that impeded Iran’s future nuclear operations. This comes as reports surfaced suggesting that the recent attacks did not impact three nuclear facilities.
“The bottom line is that they’re further from having today’s nuclear weapons than they were before the president made this bold move,” Rubio stated.
“That’s the key takeaway here. Significant damage has been done to their various components, and we’re learning more about it,” he added.
This week, the Defense Intelligence Agency indicated that Iranian centrifuges remained largely “unharmed,” noting that a U.S. B2 bomber strike had only delayed nuclear development for a few months.
Furthermore, the report suggested that Iran had relocated a substantial amount of its enriched uranium prior to the strike, as this material is crucial for developing nuclear bombs.
Rubio, however, dismissed the CNN report as inaccurate and claimed that the White House would depend on assessments from Israeli sources.
“That story is misleading and shouldn’t be reported because it doesn’t reflect the reality,” Rubio told Politico.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses echoed this sentiment on Wednesday.
“This information is meant for internal review, and we’re conducting leak investigations with the FBI to evaluate combat damage,” Hegges informed reporters at a NATO summit in the Netherlands. “CNN and others are trying to twist this to make the President look bad, when, in fact, this was a significant success.”
This assessment directly counters President Trump’s assertion that Iran’s nuclear development facility is now “inoperable” following the U.S. strike.
“They’re bad people. They’re sick,” Trump remarked about the outlets reporting inconsistencies. “What they’re trying to do is downplay this incredible victory.”
Rubio also noted that the prospect of a Middle Eastern nation amassing nuclear weapons is no longer on the table.
“The national security concern with Iran lies in a regime that desires nuclear weapons, capable of threatening us and Israel today or tomorrow, and the president has made it clear that it won’t come to that,” he explained.
In a Wednesday interview, Rubio suggested that the president would treat any continued pressure on Iran by Trump’s national security team as a serious threat.
“Ultimately, there’s only one vote here,” Rubio said, speaking to Trump’s tendency to seek advice from various advisors. “When the president decides on a course of action, his instincts are usually spot-on, and we should be grateful for that.”
“When he asserts, ‘This is the path I want to take,’ our role isn’t to spend the entire day trying to persuade him otherwise.”
