Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on Sunday that the Islamic regime in Tehran, not the Palestinian question, is the single greatest barrier to peace in the Middle East. In an interview with Breitbart, he said the Trump administration has exposed Iran's central role in the region's turmoil. JNS reported that it was Rubio's first in-person interview since his public address at the Acropolis in Athens.
Rubio presented his view as a break with long-standing Washington thinking. "Traditionally, the American political class thought that peace in the Middle East, the core central issue, is the Palestinian question," he said. Instead, he argued, "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."
He cited Iran's backing of Hezbollah in Lebanon, terrorist militias in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen, along with attacks Tehran has carried out itself. Iran, he said, "is the only country in the region that has launched not simply proxy attacks, but direct attacks against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan."
"If there were 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," Rubio said. He acknowledged that the Palestinian issue might still persist but said it would be easier to resolve without the regime. "They are the central problem in that region," he said.
Tehran answered with threats of its own. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded on X to President Donald Trump's vow to "finish the job." "Want to try your luck again? Be our guest. But be careful; we have unfinished jobs too," he wrote. Araghchi claimed Iran had emerged stronger from the previous round of fighting with Israel and the United States. He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of driving America into another war "to stay out of jail."
Trump's warning came in a Truth Social post on Sunday endorsing Netanyahu ahead of Israel's October 27 election. He wrote that unless Tehran changes course quickly, "we will soon finish the job," and added: "If Israel has the wrong leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so." In a video statement, Netanyahu urged voters to "listen to him, consider his words and vote for me." He called Iran the central issue of the election.
On Monday, Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebi, a spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that any attack on Iran's energy infrastructure would turn Israel into "scorched earth forever." His remarks were carried by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.
