Washington, Oct 8
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared that Iran will never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons under President Donald Trump, accusing Tehran of building a massive missile and drone arsenal to shield its nuclear ambitions from international military action.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis in Athens, Rubio said Washington's position remained firm despite questions about whether the United States might accept limited uranium enrichment by Iran under a future agreement.
"Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, simple, period and end of story," Rubio said.
He declined to specify what level of nuclear activity Washington might accept in negotiations, but made clear that preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons remained the administration's central objective.
"Anything they agree to that would be acceptable to the United States has to be something that ensures that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon," he said.
Rubio was responding to a question about remarks by Vice President JD Vance suggesting that Iran needed to take meaningful action concerning its nuclear enrichment capacity.
The Secretary of State argued that Tehran had sought to develop overwhelming conventional military strength to deter attacks on its nuclear facilities.
According to Rubio, Iran's strategy was to accumulate sufficient missiles and drones to threaten devastating retaliation against countries attempting to stop its nuclear programme.
He said the Trump administration had acted to prevent Iran from reaching that position.
"He destroyed their drone program, their drone manufacturing capability," Rubio said, referring to Trump.
"He destroyed their missile capability. He severely eroded both of those capabilities in terms of current launchers. He destroyed their navy. He destroyed their air force."
These claims about the extent of the damage to Iran's military capabilities were not independently substantiated during the press conference.
Rubio maintained that Iran's military position had deteriorated considerably and that Tehran could no longer rely on its conventional forces to deter action against its nuclear activities.
"They will never have a nuclear weapon, period, not as long as President Trump is in office," he said.
The Secretary of State also delivered a bleak assessment of Iran's economic prospects, blaming its leadership for the country's worsening financial difficulties.
He said international sanctions were placing enormous pressure on Tehran and predicted further deterioration in the Iranian economy.
"Their economy is in total and complete freefall," Rubio said.
He accused Iran's leadership of directing resources towards armed groups abroad rather than investing in domestic infrastructure and public welfare.
Rubio specifically named Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and militias operating from Iraq as beneficiaries of Iranian financial support.
He also claimed that the Strait of Hormuz remained open and that oil shipments through the strategically important waterway had recovered to nearly their pre-conflict levels.
"There's almost as much oil flowing out now as there was before this conflict began," he said.
His remarks came during discussions with Greece that also covered maritime security, energy supplies and the consequences of instability in the Middle East.
