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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to the waiting press ahead of boarding a flight on March 27, saying that the Iran conflict will not be a long one.
“This is not going to be a prolonged conflict. The objectives I’ve outlined to you, again, I repeat them because I see these reports as like, the US is not clear on what objectives are. We’ve been as clear as you can possibly be from the very first night of what the objectives of the mission are. We’re going to destroy their factories that make missiles and rockets and drones. We’re going to destroy their Navy. We’re going to destroy their Air Force. And we are going to significantly destroy their missile launchers so they can never hide behind these things to get a nuclear weapon – we can achieve, and we are achieving all these objectives.
“We are ahead of schedule on most of them, and we can achieve them without any ground troops, without any. Now, in terms of why there’s deployments, number one, the President has to be prepared for multiple contingencies, which I’m not going to discuss with the media. And again, I refer you to the Department of War, who will probably tell you exactly the same thing. But we can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops, but we are always going to be prepared to give the President maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies should they emerge.”
Asked about whether the support Russia was giving was impeding US operations, Rubio said: “To Iran? Look, I’m going to put it to you this way – there is nothing Russia is doing for Iran that is in any way impeding or affecting our operation or the effectiveness of it – that’s the best way I could put it.”
Rubio also accused Zelensky of lying that the US had tied security guarantees to Ukraine withdrawing from Donbas: “That’s a lie, and I saw him say that, and it’s unfortunate he would say that because he knows that’s not true, and that’s not what was said.
“What he was told is the obvious – security guarantees are not gonna kick in until there’s an end to a war because, otherwise, you’re in a war getting yourself involved in the war. Okay? What is a security guarantee? It is troops that are willing to step in and secure. If you put that in place now, that means you’re injecting yourself into the war. What he was told very clearly, and he should have understood it, is that security guarantees come only after there is an end of the war, but that was not attached to unless he gives up territory – I don’t know why he says these things, they’re just not true.”
