Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while testifying before the Senate, hinted that the United States could take preemptive action against Iran and told lawmakers that Tehran’s leadership is at its weakest point in years.
“I think it’s wise and prudent to have a force posture within the region that could respond and potentially, not necessarily what’s going to happen, but if necessary, preemptively prevent the attack against thousands of American servicemen and other facilities in the region and our allies,” Rubio said during Wednesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Venezuela, Gulf News reported.
The Trump administration’s push to strengthen U.S. assets in the Middle East, including the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, is aimed at protecting more than 30,000 service members in the region.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but that’s, I think what you’re seeing now is the ability to posture assets in the region to defend against what could be an Iranian threat against our personnel,” Rubio said, referring to a potential preemptive strike.
He added that Iran’s military capabilities are “weaker” than they have ever been, but warned that the country has “thousands and thousands” of long-range ballistic missiles even though its “economy is collapsing.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has publicly supported protesters in Iran, warning Tehran that violence against them would bring military consequences.
He repeated that warning Wednesday, saying future action against Iran would be “far worse” than last summer’s strikes on its nuclear facilities.
Hellbound and Down 