Secretary of State Marco Rubio With Trey Yingst of Fox News Channel
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State
Washington, D.C.
Thomas Jefferson Room
Secretary of State Marco Rubio With Trey Yingst of Fox News Channel
QUESTION: Secretary Rubio, thank you for speaking with Fox News.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thanks. It’s great to see you here and not on the balcony with a vest on.
QUESTION: Absolutely. Great to see you. You were at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. I’m curious what was going through your mind when shots were fired outside of the ballroom.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I didn’t hear shots. I just saw a bunch of security people rushing in from the – I guess the back of the room, front stage. So the first thing you wonder immediately, just knowing kind of what’s out there, is is there an internal threat, is there a threat inside of the ballroom itself. And then the second is what – are they dealing with some mass event that’s happening from the outside in? So – but I saw them follow all the security protocols. I was watching the security steps they took around the President. It was pretty apparent at that point that they were trying to remove him from the scene, as is appropriate. So look, I mean, it was sort of an unfortunate situation that happened there, where one individual can disrupt what is one of the bigger nights in Washington, especially when the President attends. So that’s kind of the world we live in right now.
QUESTION: And you immediately went to the White House?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, we did. We went backstage to the command center where the President sat in the back, and sort of the first assessment that needed to be made was to be clear that the – all the continuity of government things were in place, and that was quickly assessed to be the case. The Vice President was secure; the President was secure. We knew the Speaker had left the premises. So that was the first thing you think about after the security of the individuals.
And then the second was the decision about whether to continue or not with the Correspondents’ Dinner. And of course when you have a breach like this, even if it’s this limited breach, you don’t know if that’s a distraction so that five other guys can get in and create damage or not. The point is you lose sort of the sterility of the place. You would have almost have had to remove everybody in order to bring everybody back in the room. The President really wanted to move forward. Like he wanted to go forward; he didn’t care. He was ready to go. But in the end, I think it was the wise decision to move it another 30 days and reschedule it, because to get everybody out of that room and screen them all and bring them back in would have been hours.
QUESTION: There’s a photo of you in the Oval Office with President Trump and the rest of the Cabinet, and you’re reviewing surveillance video from the Washington Hilton. What was that moment like? What did the President tell the Cabinet?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, what’s interesting and really fascinating and, I think, admirable about the President is his interest in transparency. There were a couple people that felt like maybe we shouldn’t put the video out because it’s an active investigation, and I don’t think this endangers the active investigation. I thought, for the President, his belief that it should be immediately available to the American people shows how committed he is to transparency. It also helps tamp down fools that are out there talking about conspiracy theories and false flags and all this craziness.
But I think the President’s decision to return to the White House, release the video, and then address the American people in a press conference – with many of the people that were in that room now at the White House in their tuxedos asking questions – was – really showed a lot of leadership by the President and I think calmed the nation down and I think has allowed us to pivot towards the investigation and move on with the work of the country.
QUESTION: This attack comes amid an ongoing war with Iran, and the Iranians have —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we have a ceasefire right now.
QUESTION: — routinely threatened – absolutely, but the questions remain about the possibility of resumption of conflict. And as the Administration has made clear, this is a temporary ceasefire unless the Iranians are willing to make a good-faith deal. But I wanted to ask you about the ongoing threat from the Iranian regime against U.S. officials. We have seen not just public but also intelligence that indicates the Iranians are trying to target U.S. officials. Do you worry about this threat domestically and Iran’s ability to go after the Cabinet?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, yeah, we’re vigilant about it. There’s no doubt, and they’re not the only ones. I mean, in addition to state actors, there are lone wolves, there are nutcases and lunatics, there are people that hate the President and hate this Administration, and 99.9 percent of them will protest or do something stupid online. But a small percentage – but nonetheless significant – might be willing to do more, and we’ve seen that. This President’s now been the target of three separate assassination attempts, including, obviously, Butler but also what happened in Palm Beach.
So – but by the same token, you can’t allow that to affect your work. Like, how do these people win? How do these threats succeed? They succeed when they intimidate you into hiding or intimidate you into not going certain places or doing certain things. And the President’s not going to allow it. He was pretty clear about it the other night. He says, yeah, we’re cognizant and we’re vigilant, but we can’t let that kind of stuff stand in the way of doing what’s right for the country and doing our jobs.
QUESTION: On the topic of Iran, what do you see as the main roadblock to an agreement with the Iranian Government?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, other than the fact that the country’s run by radical Shia clerics – that’s a pretty big impediment. The other is that they’re deeply fractured internally, and that – I think that’s always been the case but I think it’s far more pronounced now. The best way to understand Iran is you have a political class. Now, I think – look, people talk about moderates and hardliners. They’re all hardliners in Iran. But there are hardliners who understand they have to run a country and an economy, and there are hardliners that are completely motivated by theology. The hardliners that are motivated by theology are not just the IRGC officials, but obviously the supreme leader and the council that surrounds him. And then you’ve got the political class, the foreign minister, the president, the speaker, the majlis, these guys – they’re hardliners too, but they also understand the country has to have an economy. People have to eat. They have to figure out a way to pay salaries in their government.
And so you see a tension – and you always have in that system – between the Iranians who understand let’s be hardliners but let’s also balance that with the need to run a country and the hardliners who don’t care and have this apocalyptic vision of the future. Unfortunately, the hardliners, with an apocalyptic vision of the future, have the ultimate power in that country. That tension has always existed there – always. I think it’s pronounced now that you have a supreme leader whose credibility is still untested, whose access is questionable, who has not been seen visibly publicly, has not spoken, we have not heard his voice. So I think that creates tension in their system as well.
So as much as anything else, one of the impediments here is that our negotiators aren’t just negotiating with Iranians. Those Iranians then have to negotiate with other Iranians in order to figure out what they can agree to, what they can offer, what they’re willing to do, even who they’re willing to meet with.
QUESTION: Do you believe that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is still alive?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we have indications that he is. Obviously they claim that he is. We don’t have evidence that he’s not. I think the question between alive and in power are two different questions. You can be alive – but I think the unresolved questions here are does he have the same credibility as his father did. We know that for many, many years – at least I know that for many years – there’s been internal debates in Iran about succession and whether it should be hereditary-based. Should it be – there are a lot that are resistant to that. Does he have the clerical credentials to actually act as supreme leader. Is he actually making the decisions, or is there somebody standing in his stead who’s basically controlling 90 percent of it and is the one actually making decisions on his behalf? We don’t know the answers to these questions and – but I certainly think that there’s dysfunction in their system, which is making it harder to negotiate with them right now.
QUESTION: Early on Saturday, President Trump canceled the planned talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, encouraging the delegation not to go and – on Saturday, the President canceled the talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, keeping Special Envoys Kushner and Witkoff here in the United States. He said just 10 minutes later the Iranians made a new offer on paper and it was better. Do you know what concessions the Iranians are willing to make?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we do. We’re not going to negotiate that in the press, obviously, but we do. Look, “better” compared – absolutely. It’s better than what we thought they were going to submit. I think there are still questions about whether the person submitting it had the authority to submit that offer, about whether the real – and what it means.
For example, when you talk about opening the straits, as something that’s always talked about – it’s important that straits be open. But it’s not just the straits. If what they mean by opening the straits is, “Yes, the straits are open as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission or we’ll blow you up, and you pay us,” that’s not opening the straits. Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it. This is not the Suez Canal, this is not the Panama Canal, these are international waters. And if that’s normalized, not only does that set a precedent in the Middle East, it sets a precedent all over the world. Countries all over the world can now decide, well, this international waterway is close to our shores, we’re going to take control of it, we’re going to create a tolling system.
So that’s an example of how detail matters here. One thing is to say you’re open to opening the straits, but do you mean opening the straits and going back to the way it should be, the way it’s always been, or are you talking about opening the straits to a system you’re trying to create which would be completely unacceptable – not just to us, but to the whole world?
QUESTION: These details are important, and reports do indicate Iran has offered to open the straits, but they want to delay conversations about their nuclear program. Would this be acceptable to the Trump Administration?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, again, I’m not going to speculate about the President’s decision-making on this matter. Suffice it to say that the nuclear question is the reason why we’re in this in the first place. If Iran was just a radical country run by radical people but – it would still be a problem, but they are revolutionary. In essence, they seek to expand and export their revolution, not just what they do in Iran – that’s why they’re with Hizballah in Lebanon and that’s why they supported Hamas, that’s why they supported the militias in Iraq. They don’t just seek to dominate Iran, they seek to dominate the region. And imagine that with a nuclear weapon.
Look what they’ve done with the straits – great example. The straits is basically the equivalent of an economic nuclear weapon that they’re trying to use against the world, and they’re bragging about it. They’re putting up billboards in Tehran bragging about how they can hold 25 percent or 20 percent of the world’s energy hostage. Imagine if those same people had access to a nuclear weapon. They would hold the whole region hostage. We wouldn’t be able to do anything about Hizballah, we wouldn’t be able to do anything about Hamas, we wouldn’t be able to do anything about the Shia militias in Iraq, because they’d be sitting there with a nuclear weapon saying we are untouchable. There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future if this radical clerical regimes remain in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon. And what they were trying to do, before the President took action, is to hide behind this conventional shield of drums and missiles and a large navy, hide behind that, an impenetrable conventional shield, so they can do whatever they wanted with their nuclear program. That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here.
QUESTION: Do you believe the Iranians are serious about making a deal?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I think the Iranians are serious about getting themselves out of the mess that they’re in. They’re – all the problems Iran had – they had riots a few months ago and these were economic riots. All the riots and all the – I’m sorry – all the problems that Iran had before the start of this conflict are still in place and most of them are worse. Inflation is worse, they still have the drought going on, they still have trouble making payroll, their economy’s flattened, they face crippling economic sanctions around the world. All those problems are there and many of them are worse; and now, they have half the missiles, none of the factories, and no navy and no air force. All that’s been destroyed, so they’re worse off and weaker.
So yeah, I think they’re serious about figuring out how can they buy themselves more time. We can’t let them get away with it. They’re very good negotiators. They’re very experienced negotiators, and we have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.
QUESTION: If there is no deal, what comes next?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, again, that’s the President’s decision to make. I would start out by reminding everybody that the level of sanctions on Iran are extraordinary, the pressure on Iran is extraordinary, and I think more can be brought to bear. But I hope that in the aftermath of this conflict the whole world’s eyes have been opened to the threat Iran poses. Again, they want to do with the world with a nuclear weapon what they are doing now with oil. They want to hold the world hostage so they can do whatever they want. That’s unacceptable.
Now, one of the things that has to happen is the international community, quote/unquote, as it likes to be called but it never does anything – the international community needs to come together and say what’s happening in Iran is a threat to global peace, a threat to global stability – not just a threat to the Gulf kingdoms, not just a threat to Israel, a threat to the world, and it has to be addressed comprehensively. I hope the rest of the world will join us in the crippling sanctions and other things that we are doing to pressure that regime into making concessions it does not want to make.
QUESTION: I know that regime change is not a goal of the Trump Administration, but do you see a scenario in which the actions of the United States and Israel lead to regime change in Iran?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think – look, regime change is something that has to happen from within. But changing the regime – I know it looks like a word play – is something that pressure can bring about. In essence, one thing is to change the people in charge or their ideology, but another thing is to modify or modulate their behavior. At the end of the day, even though they are radicals, there are still people in the Iranian system that every single day, behind every decision they make, they weigh the costs and they weigh the benefits. And we have to make sure that the costs of all the nefarious things they are doing outweigh the benefits of what they are doing. This is the reason why the blockade is in place. You can’t have them close the straits and say, “You have to pay us to use the straits, but the only country that can go through the straits unimpeded without paying anything is Iran.” The blockade is not a blockade against shipping. It’s a blockade against Iranian shipping, because they cannot be the sole beneficiaries of an illegal, unlawful, and unjustified system of tolling and control in the straits.
QUESTION: President Trump has indicated that if there is no agreement with Iran, Operation Epic Fury will resume and he will target bridges and power plants. He told me this in a phone interview about two weeks ago. I wanted to ask you about how the administration weighs targeting. How do you walk the line between targeting infrastructure in Iran that hurts the regime but doesn’t hurt the civilian population that you are trying to win over?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, the first thing is always intent. Our desire is not to hurt the people of Iran. We have no problem with the people of Iran. Frankly, we wish the voices of the people of Iran were heard as opposed to having 30- and 40,000 of them murdered in the streets, murdered inside of hospitals, executed on a routine basis. So we have no quarrel with the people of Iran. We feel bad for the people of Iran, who are also victims of that regime.
If you talk about what the regime uses to sustain itself, what it uses to sustain itself is its industrial capacity, its ability to generate energy, and to use roads and bridges for purposes of the military. And so our targets will always be things that support the regime directly. You can’t – obviously, there might be a road or a power – a plant or factory somewhere that also benefits the economy, but its primary role is to benefit the regime and its security apparatus. That’s what we always targeted, and that’s what we’re focused on. We’re not hitting hospitals or anything. We’re not hitting nurseries and day care centers. That’s not our goal. That’s never what we are targeting. We are targeting things that support the regime’s ability to export terrorism and to protect its nuclear program.
QUESTION: Have you talked to your Iranian counterpart or have you —
SECRETARY RUBIO: I have never spoken to the foreign minister of Iran, as I said, and he rarely has spoken to our people. It’s mostly indirect talks. There’s been some direct communication over the last few weeks with regards to these meetings that have taken place. Remember, for a long time there was a prohibition in the Iranian system against speaking directly to Americans. You had to speak through intermediaries. I think this conflict has brought about the need, as you saw what occurred in Pakistan, Islamabad, a few weeks ago, where there were direct communications. But direct communications with them are very rare and very discreet, and only through one or two people in their system.
QUESTION: I’d like to shift now to Lebanon. There are historic efforts underway to try and reach an agreement between Israel and their neighbor to the north. Where do things stand in those negotiations?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it’s a very unique ceasefire because Lebanon and Israel are not at war. Israel’s problem is with Hizballah. Unfortunately, Hizballah happens to be inside of Lebanon conducting attacks against Israel.
So I think what I have perceived from this – and it’s been very successful – is both the Lebanese and the Israelis seek peace. They have no problem with one another. Israel has no territorial claims on Lebanon. There isn’t some part of Lebanon that Israel claims belongs to them. The problem Israel has is not with Lebanon. It’s with Hizballah inside of Lebanon. And by the way, the Lebanese have acknowledged that Hizballah is a problem for them. Not only is Israel the victim of Hizballah, but so are the Lebanese.
So the efforts now, number one, is the ceasefire and to make sure that – obviously, there’s still going to be defensive operations within our agreement. Israel has a right to defend itself from an imminent attack or an ongoing attack from Hizballah elements, who will do everything they can to disrupt the ceasefire. But ultimately, the answer, both sides agree, is a Lebanese Armed Forces with the capability to go after and disarm and dismantle Hizballah inside of their country. And that’s what we’re working towards establishing, is a system that actually works where vetted units within the Lebanese Armed Forces have the training, the equipment, and the capability to go after elements of Hizballah and dismantle them so Israel doesn’t have to do it.
QUESTION: Just three hours ago, the Israelis launched a new bombing campaign against Hizballah targets inside of Lebanon, not just targeting the south of the country but also the Bekaa Valley. Are these types of strikes coordinated with the United States? Were you aware of them?
SECRETARY RUBIO: We’re aware they’re going to happen. And even in the agreement what’s abundantly clear, okay, is if Hizballah is about to launch a bunch of rockets against Israel and against the villages to the north, that Israel has a right to address that before it happens. These are defensive measures. That’s very different from a widespread campaign that’s going on. And by the way, as we were sitting in the Oval Office with the ambassador to the U.S. from Israel and the ambassador to the U.S. from Lebanon, there was a strike. There was a missile strike from Hizballah against an Israeli village to the north. And the reason why, obviously, was to disrupt these talks.
So Hizballah is still conducting these activities. And what I find appalling is that every time Hizballah launches rockets or any time Hizballah launches an attack, you don’t see the global media reporting on those. You only see the reporting on the Israeli response. Now, we have urged our Israeli colleagues to use – to be smart about this, to measure themselves in their response, to make sure their responses are proportional and targeted, and so far that appears to be the case. Obviously, I don’t know what’s happened since I’ve been in this room with you, but that’s so far the case because that’s important. But I think it’s acknowledged in this agreement that Israel has a right to deal with threats that Lebanon can’t deal.
QUESTION: Do you see a scenario where Lebanon joins the Abraham Accords?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we’re not there yet. I mean, obviously that would be very promising, but we’re not at that point. I think what we perceive – and it’s pretty clear – is by and large there is no Lebanese-Israeli conflict per se. The conflict is entirely with Hizballah. And Hizballah is not just at war with Israel; it’s at war with the Lebanese state. It’s at war with the Lebanese state.
And I think what needs to happen inside Lebanon is not just that the overwhelming majority of the country, the Sunnis and the Christians, say Hizballah has been a nightmare for us, but even within the Shia population that there be a rejection of Hizballah. All Hizballah has brought to Lebanon – okay, they are an outside force operating inside of Lebanon on behalf of the Iranian regime, and the only thing that Hizballah has brought to Lebanon is suffering and destruction. There should be one government, one armed forces inside of Lebanon, and it should belong to the Lebanese Government. And that’s who we should be empowering.
QUESTION: Hizballah has routinely launched attacks against Israeli civilians along the border. It fired thousands of rockets into Israel. Are you open to a scenario where Israel maintains a buffer zone indefinitely inside of Lebanon?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No. I don’t thing the Israelis want it indefinitely. I think if you ask the Israelis, they would tell you the perfect outcome is a strong Lebanese Government with a strong Lebanese Armed Forces who is able to dismantle Hizballah, to prevent them from these attacks and ultimately to make sure that they don’t exist any more as a military unit. That’s the ideal outcome that the Israelis want. I think that’s what the Lebanese want.
I think the problem we face right now in the short term is the Lebanese Armed Forces, while they may have willingness, do not at this moment have full capability to address all of the threats that are emanating from Hizballah inside of Lebanon.
And so I think the ideal outcome here would be one in which you wouldn’t need an Israeli presence. The Israelis will tell you that. They don’t want to permanently be in Lebanon. They are there now as a buffer zone to protect small arms and anti-tank missiles being launched into the villages, and even rockets in many cases from further out. But in the long term, Israel has made no territorial claims on Lebanon.
So there’s a lot of work to be done here, but the good news is that the Lebanese Government and the Israeli Government both want the same thing. They want peace and they want Hizballah gone.
QUESTION: I want to shift now to Gaza. More than 930 days since October 7th. Hamas remains in control of just under half of the Gaza Strip. They are supposed to lay down their weapons as part of the ceasefire agreement brokered by the Trump Administration. They have yet to do so.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: Are you concerned their refusal to lay down their arms could lead to a resumption of the war inside Gaza?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think ultimately this entire deal relies, this entire agreement relies upon them disarming and demilitarizing, and that hasn’t happened yet. Now, there were some promising signs over the weekend. I know that our partners in Egypt and Türkiye have been involved in this process. There’s been some promising signs over the weekend that we’re getting closer to an agreement with regards to them demilitarizing. But that has to happen. The entirety of this project only works if Hamas is demilitarized. Until that happens, all of it is in question.
So that’s the key question. We’re very focused on that. There’s been some progress made on that despite public announcements from Hamas. But ultimately we have to see it happen, and we’re hopeful in the next few days we may have good news on that.
QUESTION: Would the Trump Administration support Israel resuming combat operations inside Gaza if Hamas does not lay down their weapons?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I’m not going to speculate about what the President may or may not support down the road in a theoretical. Let’s hope we can avoid that. That’s not the outcome we want. The outcome we want is for Hamas to be demilitarized and a Palestinian security force backed by an international security force is able to secure Gaza.
QUESTION: I have two more questions for you, sir. One on Cuba.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: You have routinely talked about the Cuban Government and the threat that the current government could pose to the United States given the proximity to America. What do you believe should happen in Cuba, and what is the Trump Administration trying to avoid?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, Cuba is two things right now. Number one, it’s a failed state. It has really no real economy, so its people are living in dire misery and have no political freedoms either. And the second is it’s a host nation for adversaries and competitors. The Chinese, the Russians, and others routinely use Cuba for their purposes 90 miles from our shores. That’s what makes Cuba different from anything in the Middle East or something happening in Asia. It is literally 90 miles from Key West, just a hundred-something miles away from Mar-a-Lago. So it is very close, and it matters because it’s within our hemisphere. It’s about as close as you can get. So that’s why we care about it; that’s why it’s important.
There’s only two things that can happen in Cuba. Number one is total collapse – again, not because of us. The reason why Cuba’s economy has been collapsing for a long time is because Marxism in general doesn’t work, and it really doesn’t work when the people trying to conduct Marxism also happen to be incompetent and don’t know anything about economics and don’t care about anything about economics. They just care about control.
So it’s either going to get far worse and collapse – which is bad for our country. A humanitarian collapse 90 miles from our shore of a country of 11 or 12 million people is not a good thing for the United States.
The other thing is it can get better. But in order for it to get better, they do need very substantial and serious economic reforms. Those serious economic reforms are impossible with these people in charge. It can’t happen. And these people in charge aren’t just economically incompetent. They have rolled out the welcome mat to adversaries of the United States to operate within Cuban territory against our national interest with impunity. We are not going to have a foreign military or intelligence or security apparatus operating with impunity 90 miles off the shores of the United States. That’s not going to happen under President Trump.
QUESTION: Sir, my last question has to do with China. The State Department last week warned of increased Chinese efforts to steal American intellectual property as it relates to artificial intelligence. At which point does this become a national security threat more than an economic threat?
SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s always been both. It’s always been both because deeply embedded in all of our national security is our economic security. And even, look at all the IT, look at all of the technology that’s used by our defense forces; they are all heavily reliant on advances in technology. So the Chinese are not the only ones or the best ones at the world in it, but everyone in the world is trying to steal – and I’m not excusing what the Chinese are doing. It’s a very serious thing. But every country in the world, every foreign actor with the capability is trying to steal our intellectual property because it benefits them because we’re the best in the world at it.
So this is a real threat. And even as we seek to stabilize, have strategic stability in our relations with China, we cannot ignore the threats that their activities pose to our economic or national security.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
from Collected Department Releases – United States Department of State https://ift.tt/eqHTAm8