Rubio: ‘No need’ for further strikes on Iran because the economic pain ‘is so great’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that further US military action against Iran is unnecessary because the economic pain the US is inflicting on a weakened Islamic Republic is so great.

Rubio’s comment in a speech to the Federalist Society reinforces a statement by US President Donald Trump earlier in the week that the war “militarily is effectively over.”

“And right now, frankly, the economic pain that we are inflicting on that regime is so great that there’s no need for military action because we’ve weakened them so much,” Rubio says. “But I think victory is ensuring that they never have a nuclear weapon.”

Rubio also acknowledges the economic pain Americans have experienced as a result of the war, which has driven up fuel costs and affected nearly every sector of the global economy.

It would have been easy for Trump to ignore the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, avoid an unpopular war and “leave it for the next person to worry about,” he says, adding that the president decided he was “not going to leave it unaddressed.”

“But it’s hard,” Rubio says. “It’s not easy and it’s difficult. And oftentimes it inflicts, you know, pain, economic pain and otherwise. So we recognize that.”