Rubio says Iran would have been able to launch missiles, drones in a year and a half

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday during a press briefing that the U.S. had to strike Iran because they would have been able to launch missiles in a year and a half.

“They’re attacking facilities that have nothing to do with war or with military, and that’s weakened Iran,” Rubio said. “That’s Iran despite years of sanctions. Imagine a year from now or a year and a half from now, the capabilities they would have to inflict damage on us.”

He went on to slam the Ayatollah as being radical.

“That entire regime is led by radical clerics who don’t make geopolitical decisions,” Rubio said. “They make decisions on the basis of theology, their view of theology, which is apocalyptic.”

Over the weekend, the U.S. and Israel conducted target strikes on Iran. So far, four U.S. service members have been killed.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in previous statements that Iran was “building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions.”

Rubio repeated what President Donald Trump said, stating that the conflict with Iran is “on or ahead of schedule.”

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh wrote on X that he thought the president’s messaging on Iran was confusing. Trump told the New York Post that he wasn’t shying away from potential boots on the ground in the country.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt weighed in to defend the president in a lengthy X post.

“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has actively and intentionally facilitated the killing of Americans while chanting “death to America” and funding other bloodthirsty terrorists seeking to destroy the United States and all of Western Civilization,” she wrote on X. “Prior American leaders were too weak and cowardly to do anything about it. Now, President Donald J. Trump is correcting decades of cowardice and holding those responsible for the deaths of Americans accountable.”