If Iran retaliates for Saturday night’s air strikes, it will be the worst mistake it’s ever made, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday morning.
“If they attack us, then I think we have capabilities they haven’t even seen yet. It would be a terrible mistake on their part,” Rubio told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Rubio said Iran can have civil nuclear programs like other countries around the world, but it will continue to have problems, both with the U.S. and “many other countries in the world,” if it wants “some secret program” that “looks a lot like you’re trying to build a bomb.”
While the U.S. is no longer part of The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—also known as the Iran nuclear deal—Germany, France, and Britain are, Rubio said, and Iran is in complete violation of the existing sanctions.
“I think the Europeans, particularly the Germans, the French, and the Brits have made it very clear that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons,” Rubio said.
Those three countries must decide by no later than this October whether to reinstate the sanctions on Iran, he said. “We encourage them to continue to press them on that front because that’s another set of pressure.”
When it comes to other countries in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, Rubio said the U.S. works “very cooperatively with them.”
“The only reason we have U.S. bases in the region … is because they are afraid that Iran will attack them, and they want us there to help defend them,” Rubio said. “These countries fully recognize the threat that Iran poses.”
Additionally, Iran needs to start talking directly to the U.S. Said Rubio, “We always have to have a middleman—they want to pass messages and notes like we’re in third grade—we’re not doing that anymore.”
The U.N. Security Council met Sunday regarding the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear locations, according to Reuters. China, Pakistan, and Russia drafted a resolution advocating prompt ceasefire in the Middle East, with it being unclear when the council would vote on the resolution.
The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the U.S. strikes in a statement Sunday in Istanbul, Turkey.
The U.S. holds “full responsibility for the consequences of its actions,” Araghchi said. “In accordance with the U.N. charter and its provisions allowing legitimate response and self-defense, Iran reserves all options to defend its security interests and people.”
Rubio said the U.S. made it clear to the Iranian regime that should any proxies attack America, it will deal with both the proxies and Iran.
“They create these little groups like the Shia militias in Iraq and Syria, and then they hide behind them and pretend it’s not them—we know it’s them,” Rubio said. “So, Iran will be held responsible for the actions of these groups.”
Rubio said Iran is the source of “every problem” in the Middle East, and for around 40 years, the world has been paying a price for Iran’s trouble.
“Imagine those people having a nuclear weapon—just one nuclear weapon—or even the capability of being on the threshold of building a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said. “That’s what the world was facing. That is unacceptable. President [Donald] Trump did the world a favor last night.”