QUESTION: Secretary of State and Acting White House National Security Advisor Marco Rubio now joins us. Mr. Secretary, I know it has been an intense few hours, but so far it does not appear that Iran has yet retaliated against the United States. What intelligence do you have at this point about their capabilities to respond, the intent of their proxies? Is there any kind of command-and-control structure left to activate them?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, well, we'll see what Iran decides to do. I think they should choose the route of peace. We have been - we've done everything. We have bent over backwards, okay, to create a deal with these people. Steve Witkoff has traveled the world extensively, met with them - well, not even met with them, met through the Omanis with them and discussed back and forth. We even put an offer to them that they wanted elements of it in writing, and we offered it to them - very generous offer, by the way.
We've done - and we're prepared right now, if they call right now and say we want to meet, let's talk about this, we're prepared to do that. The President's made that clear from the very beginning. His preference is to deal with this issue diplomatically. But he also told them we had 60 days to make progress or something else was going to happen. And I think they thought they were dealing with a different kind of leader, like the kinds of leaders they've been playing games with for the last 30 or 40 years. And they found out that's not the case.
So this mission was a very precise mission. It had three objectives: three nuclear sites. It was not an attack on Iran; it was not an attack on the Iranian people. This wasn't a regime-change move. This was designed to degrade and/or destroy three nuclear sites related to their nuclear weaponization ambitions, and that was delivered on yesterday. What happens next will now depend on what Iran chooses to do next. If they choose the path to diplomacy, we're ready. We can do a deal that's good for them, the Iranian people, and good for the world. If they choose another route, then there'll be consequences for that.
QUESTION: Yeah. Let me follow up on a phrase you just were - weaponization ambitions. Are you saying there that the United States did not see intelligence that the supreme leader had ordered weaponization?
SECRETARY RUBIO: That's irrelevant. I think that question being asked in the media all - that's an irrelevant question. They have everything they need to build a weapon.
QUESTION: No, that is the key point in U.S. intelligence assessments. You know that.
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, it's not. No, it's not.
QUESTION: Yes, it was that the political decision had not been made.
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, no, I - well, I know that better than you know that, and I know that that's not the case.
QUESTION: But I'm asking you whether the order was given.
SECRETARY RUBIO: You don't - I mean, you don't know what you're talking about. And the people who say that - it doesn't matter if the order was given. They have everything they need to build nuclear weapons. Why would you bury - why would you bury things in a mountain 300 feet under the ground?
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Why would you bury - why do they have 60 percent enriched uranium? You don't need 60 percent enriched uranium. The only countries in the world that have uranium at 60 percent are countries that have nuclear weapons —
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: — because they can quickly make it 90. They have all the elements. They have - why are they - why do they have a space program? Is Iran going to go to the moon? No, they're trying to build an ICBM so they can one day put a warhead on it.
QUESTION: No, but that's a - that's a question - that's a question of intent, and you know in the intelligence assessment that it was that Iran wanted to be a threshold state and use this leverage —
SECRETARY RUBIO: How do you know what the intelligence assessment says? How do you know what the intelligence assessment says?
QUESTION: I'm talking about the public March assessment, and that's why I was asking you if you know something more from March, if an order was given.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that - but that's also an inaccurate representation of it. That's an inaccurate representation of it. That's not how intelligence is read. That's not how intelligence is used. Here's what the whole world knows. Forget about intelligence. What the IAEA knows: They are enriching uranium well beyond anything you need for a —
QUESTION: Yes.
SECRETARY RUBIO: — for a civil nuclear program. So why would you enrich uranium at 60 percent —
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: — if you don't intend to one day use it to take it to 90 and build a weapon?
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Why are you - why are you developing ICBMs? Why do you have 8,000 short-range missiles and 2- to 3,000 long - mid-range missiles that you continue to develop? Why do you do all these things?
QUESTION: Understood.
SECRETARY RUBIO: They have everything they need for a nuclear weapon.
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: They have the delivery mechanisms; they have the enrichment capability; they have the highly enriched uranium that is stored.
QUESTION: Yes. Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: That's all we need to see —
QUESTION: Well, and that - so it was the —
SECRETARY RUBIO: — especially in the hands of a regime that's already involved in terrorism and proxies and all kinds of things - Iran. They are the source of all the instability in the Middle East.
QUESTION: Yes, and no one's disputing - no one's disputing that. I'm not doing that here, and they were censured at the IAEA for that enrichment and for violating their nonproliferation agreements. I was simply asking if we had intelligence that there was an order to weaponize, because you said weaponization ambitions, which implies they weren't doing it.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we have intelligence that they had everything they need to build a nuclear weapon.
QUESTION: Got it.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And that's more than enough.
QUESTION: Okay. Can - I want to ask you on the policy front, there are personnel throughout the Middle East from the United States in Bahrain, in Kuwait, in other bases. If those countries are attacked by Iran because of their association with the United States, will the United States defend them?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that's exactly why they're there, and that's a great point, actually. Do you know why we have bases in Bahrain and Qatar and UAE and in all these places? All those bases are there because those countries are afraid that Iran will attack them. If Iran was not a threat to the region, if the Iranian regime - because I'm talking about the Iranian people - the regime was not a threat to the region, we wouldn't have to have any of these bases. Those bases are there because those countries are petrified that these - that the Iranian Shia clerics that run that country will attack their countries. As you know, they've got a very difficult history.
QUESTION: Will the United States defend them if they are?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that's why we're there. That's why we're there. But they'll attack us is what they're threatening to do.
QUESTION: So yes, we will defend them?
SECRETARY RUBIO: So we'll defend our people, obviously. We'll defend our people. Well, they'll attack our bases, and those are our bases, and we're going to defend our personnel, and we're prepared to do that. But we'll do more than just defend. We'll impose costs on Iran if they attack American personnel, whether they do it directly or whether they do it through some of these proxies that they try to hide behind, and that includes the Houthis.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: So - another proxy of theirs. So, but let's hope they don't choose that route. Let's all hope that they actually decide, okay, let's go negotiate, because we want a diplomatic and peaceful solution. We have achieved our objectives. We're ready to negotiate this in a peaceful, diplomatic way. We've been prepared to do that for days. They are the ones that played games.
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: As they have done for 40 years, as they have done to multiple presidents, they tried to play games with President Trump, and they see what happens. This is not a game-playing President.
QUESTION: I —
SECRETARY RUBIO: When he says he's going to do something, he will do it.
QUESTION: I hear you saying here you want to de-escalate when you are talking about diplomacy. You are looking for Iran to pick up that offer that was put on the table, you mentioned, by Steve Witkoff. Can you just clarify: Does that mean the U.S. would still allow for Iran to have a civilian nuclear program if it does not enrich on its own soil?
SECRETARY RUBIO: But that - but that's never been an issue. There's countries all over the world that have a civil nuclear program.
QUESTION: But that's still the offer on the table?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No one here is saying that Iran can't - sure, that's always been there.
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Every - any country in the world has a right to have a civil nuclear program. What they don't have a right to do is to enrich it at 60 percent, hide it under a mountain —
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: — and develop long-range and short-range and mid-range missiles, and sponsor terrorist proxies all over the world. They don't have a right to do that, and that's what they've been doing. And no one's dealt with it, and it's continued to linger, and they've played games with multiple presidents and multiple countries around the world, and they've gotten away with it for 40-something years.
This is very simple. The President wants to resolve this diplomatically and peacefully. He gave them a chance to do that; they delayed.
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: They had all these kind of delay tactics. They wouldn't even meet with us directly. We had to go through third countries.
QUESTION: Yes.
SECRETARY RUBIO: This is very simple. Let's meet directly; let's work on agreements that we can - that are good for Iran, good for the Iranian people in particular, good for the safety and security of the world and the United States. That's always been our preference. That continues to be our preference.
But they are the ones that were playing games with this, and these are the consequences. We had to achieve those objectives. We had three objectives yesterday: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. We conducted a brilliant military operation under the command of President Trump, and obviously great credit to Secretary Hegseth and General Kurilla and General Caine and all of our - all the airmen and the phenomenal people in the U.S. military. No other military in the world could have done this.
QUESTION: No, it was astounding.
SECRETARY RUBIO: We've achieved those objectives. What happens next is up to the regime, okay?
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: The regime wants peace, we're ready for peace.
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: They want to do something else? They're incredibly vulnerable. They can't even protect their own airspace.
QUESTION: Well, clearly - clearly they could not. But what is the U.S. assessment of how much nuclear material at those sites was moved prior to the attack? There has been talk for days about bombing of Fordow.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, we don't - no one will know for sure for days, but I doubt they moved it because you really can't move anything right now, and they can't move anything right now inside of Iran. I mean, the minute a truck starts driving somewhere, the Israelis have seen it and they've targeted it and taken it out. So our assessment is we have to assume that that's a lot of 60 percent enriched uranium buried deep under the ground there in Isfahan, and that really is the key. What they should do with that is they should bring it out of the ground and turn it over. Multiple countries around the world will take it and down-blend it. That's what they should do with that. And what they should do is say we're not going to have any enrichment capability in our country; instead, what we're going to have is a civil nuclear program like dozens of countries around the world have where we build reactors that create electricity and we import enriched material.
And we've made very generous - I'm not going to get into all the details of the offers, but there are other avenues here that would be acceptable to them. If that's what they wanted - if what they want is a civil, peaceful nuclear program, the route has always been there. The problem is that everything they're demanding has nothing to do with a peaceful program. They are all the things you would want if you want to retain the option of one day weaponizing the program —
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: — which has been their clear intent. To me that's indisputable. I've followed this issue for 15 years —
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: — including the intelligence on it for 15 years. Okay? I have followed it. And the intelligence - these are assessments, and sometimes they've been wrong; I've seen them revised multiple times. These guys want a nuclear weapon one day. They do.
QUESTION: Okay, to that point —
SECRETARY RUBIO: And it isn't going to happen. Not while Donald Trump is President.
QUESTION: Understood. You've said this is not about regime change, but you are describing a regime that you have said for decades - I mean, for upwards of 40 years - has chanted "Death to America," has done all the things you just described. Isn't a diplomatic deal with them a lifeline? Aren't you offering to negotiate with the same people you're saying did all these things, so therefore are you actually looking for regime change?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, but that misses the point. That misses the point. I don't like that they chant those things, but one thing is that they chant those things; another thing is that they chant those things, and they have terror proxies that are all over the world, and they have long-range missiles that can reach the United States one day, and they have the potential to be one step away from a nuclear weapon.
QUESTION: One day?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. Well, one day could be tomorrow, it could be a week from now, it could be a month from now. All it takes is the flip of a switch. By the way, they're not going to broadcast that to the world. By the time we figure out that they're doing it, you have all the pieces in place, okay? It's like you have a loaded —
QUESTION: So are there still targets you want to hit?
SECRETARY RUBIO: — a gun here and the ammunition. It only takes one second. We have other targets that we could hit, but we achieved our objective. The primary targets we were interested in are the ones that were struck tonight in devastating fashion, the ones that were struck I guess, yeah, tonight over there their time, in devastating fashion. And we've achieved that objective. There are no planned military operations right now against Iran unless - unless they mess around and they attack American or American interests. Then they're going to have a problem. Then they're going to have a problem, and I'm not going to broadcast what those problems are.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: But suffice it to say, know this: The United States flew halfway around the world, right into the heart of Iran, over their most sensitive locations. These things got rocked.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And then we left and we were out of their airspace. We were over the ocean before they figured out what had happened.
QUESTION: Understood.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And there are plenty of other - we don't want to do that. That's not our preference. We want peace deals with them, and that's up to them to decide.
QUESTION: You said defend American interests. Would the United States military take action to keep, for example, the transit point, the Strait of Hormuz, open? If there are attacks on oil installations, would the United States consider that a direct act by the state, even if it was carried out by a militia?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I'm not going to take options away from the President. That's not something we're talking about right now in terms of being immediate. But if they do that, the first people that should be angry about it are the Chinese Government, because they take - a lot of their oil comes through there. So they should be the first ones that are saying, if they mine the Straits of Hormuz, the Chinese are going to pay a huge price and every other country in the world is going to pay a huge price. We will too. It'll have some impact on us. It'll have a lot more impact on the rest of the world - a lot more impact on the rest of the world. That would be a suicidal move on their part because I think the whole world would come against them if they did that.
QUESTION: Will the Chinese and Russians stop trading with Iran?
SECRETARY RUBIO: You have to ask the Chinese and the Russians. Probably not.
QUESTION: You haven't asked them?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, they're getting - they're - well, the Russians are getting a bunch of these drones that they're using are coming from Iran. They're coming from Iran.
QUESTION: Exactly.
SECRETARY RUBIO: So I saw the foreign minister, instead of meeting with Steve Witkoff, is headed to Moscow to meet with Putin, which was a prescheduled meeting, which is fine - they can go meet - and the Russians at the end of the day, I mean, they buy drones from them. But look, this is very simple. We want to have an agreement with them, a diplomatic agreement in which they have a civil nuclear program but are not enriching and don't have weapons-grade material or weapons-grade capabilities laying around. It's that simple. That's our interest here.
QUESTION: But they're - understood.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Who they trade with, who they deal with, those are other topics. Our objective here is very straightforward. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. They're not even going to get close to a nuclear weapon. They're not even going to be in the neighborhood of a nuclear weapon because these people are dangerous. This is a radical Shia clerics —
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: — who run that country, and they are the source of all instability in the region. All of it. Without Iran and this regime —
QUESTION: And you're offering to negotiate with them, so —
SECRETARY RUBIO: — there is no Hamas, there is no Hizballah. Well, because we don't want them to a have a nuclear weapon.
QUESTION: Okay, but let me —
SECRETARY RUBIO: But that's the core objective. But the —
QUESTION: But —
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, no, but I'm going through the things they have done because that's why they can't have a nuclear weapon, okay? They sponsor Shias —
QUESTION: Yeah, I'm just trying —
SECRETARY RUBIO: I'm sorry. They sponsor these Shia militias, Hamas, Hizballah, all these other terrorist groups. These people aren't getting - are never going to get anywhere close to a nuclear weapon, not while Donald Trump is President.
QUESTION: For the Americans at - for the Americans at home who are going, "Are we at war," I'm trying to suss out some of the facts here. So why would - why would Iran agree to any peace deal if the United States has already pulled out of one that they had, as President Trump did in 2018, and now launched two surprise attacks? Both Israel and the United States have done so. There is such a massive trust deficit there. How could you possibly come to an agreement?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, but the trust deficit started with Iran.
QUESTION: I know.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, the trust deficit - the ones that shouldn't be trusted are the Iranians because they're the ones that sponsor terrorism. Did they forewarn us before they blew up the embassy in Lebanon and killed over 200 American servicemen? Did they forewarn us before they built IEDs and blew the legs and arms off of American servicemen in Iraq? I mean, these are the people that are doing this forever. They're the ones that no one should trust. They're the ones that have lied about their nuclear program.
QUESTION: But that sounds - all sounds like —
SECRETARY RUBIO: They're the ones that have hidden things from the international organisms.
QUESTION: Well, but that sounds like we're headed towards regime change or the desire to get —
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, but —
QUESTION: — these people out of power.
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, no, no.
QUESTION: Are you —
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, no a serious foreign policy is one that's focused on identifying what our national interest is. You don't have to like the regime. There are a lot of regimes around the world that we don't like, okay? But in this particular case, what we are focused on is not the changing of the regime. Okay? That's up to the Iranian people if they want to do that, but that's not what we're focused on. Our national interest is about one thing, and that is Iran not getting anywhere near the capability to weaponize and have nuclear weapons. They're not going to get anywhere near that capability. The President has made that clear from day one. Our preference for solving that problem, that very specific problem, is through diplomacy. We've said that. We've given it every opportunity. They played games. They tried delay tactics. They're trying delay tactics now on the Europeans because of the snapback provisions.
QUESTION: When did the President make this —
SECRETARY RUBIO: And you talk about the JCPOA. That was a crazy deal.
QUESTION: When did the President make this decision? Because he said he was giving two more weeks of diplomacy on Friday, and on Friday these jets took off.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, the President retains the opportunity to pull out of this at any moment, including 10 minutes before. But the President ordered options. The - look, the decision in my view was made when he wrote a letter to the supreme leader and he said: Over the next 60 days we want to do a deal with you and solve this problem of nuclear weaponization.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: We want to do it peacefully.
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RUBIO: If after 60 days we don't see progress or it isn't solved, we have other alternatives. He made that very clear. I think what some people —
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary —
SECRETARY RUBIO: — are struggling with here is that we today have a President who does what he says he's going to do. And that's what happened here. And hopefully the Iranian regime got that message.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, we're going to hit a commercial break so I have to wrap you there. Thank you very much for your time. We'll be back in a minute.
