From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 19, 2026
Rubio: Palestinian issue would be easier to deal with if Iran’s Islamic regime didn’t exist
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the conflict with the Palestinians would be easier to deal with without the Islamic Republic of Iran’s interference.
“So, look, I think traditionally, the American political class thought that peace in the Middle East, the core central issue, is the Palestinian question,” Rubio says in an interview with Breitbart.
“I’m not saying it’s irrelevant, but I think what President Trump has exposed is that the number one driver of instability and war and conflict and the number one obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the Islamic regime in Tehran, and I think the evidence bears it out in Lebanon,” he says.
“If there was no Islamic clerics, these radical Shia clerics in Iran—if they didn’t exist, if that wasn’t there—none of these problems would exist. You may still have a Palestinian issue. I would argue that issue would be easier to deal with if Iran didn’t exist. So they’re at the core of all of these problems, and I think correctly identifying who it is that’s driving instability and war in the Middle East is important in order to solve it,” he adds.
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