Rubio: US can achieve Iran goals without ground troops, but deployments give Trump options

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States can achieve its objectives in Iran without the use of any ground troops, despite recent deployments of additional forces to the region.

Rubio speaks to reporters before returning to the US after he discussed the US-Israeli war with Iran with G7 foreign ministers in France.

Rubio says the US was achieving its objectives in the war, which he said were destroying Iran’s missile and drone capabilities and factories to produce those weapons, as well as its navy and its air force.

“We are ahead of schedule on most of them, and we can achieve them without any ground troops, without any,” Rubio says.

Rubio says recent deployments of thousands of more troops to the region are intended to give US President Donald Trump options to respond to contingencies in the conflict, but declines to go into operational details.

“In terms of why there’s deployments, number one, the president has to be prepared for multiple contingencies… We are always going to be prepared to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust the contingencies, should they emerge,” he says.