The Islamic Republic is at “the weakest they’ve ever been,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on Tuesday ahead of a classified Senate hearing on the Iran war, saying that “now is the time to go after them.”
U.S. President Donald Trump “made the decision to go after them—take away their missiles, take away their navy, take away their drones, take away their ability to make those things so that they can never have a nuclear weapon,” the top diplomat told reporters on Capitol Hill.
.@SecRubio: "Let me explain to you guys this in simple English, ok? Iran is run by lunatics — religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons. They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles and drones and terrorism that the… pic.twitter.com/JHeesGYKnG
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 3, 2026
“It was the right decision, and the world will be a safer place when these radical clerics no longer have access to these weapons,” he continued.
“Imagine how they would use them a year from now if they had more of these,” Rubio warned. The regime is run by “religious fanatic lunatics,” he said, stressing the mullahs’ ambitions to develop a nuclear bomb.
Tehran intended “to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles and drones and terrorism that the world will not be able to touch them for fear of those things,” according to the secretary of state.
The closed-door briefing for all members of the Senate featured senior administration officials, including Rubio, War [Defense] Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
Senators of both parties told The Huffington Post that they were given no timetable for the joint military operation with Israel, and that Trump administration officials did not rule out U.S. boots on the ground.
