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Rubio Says Iran "Needs to Stop Building Weapons that Can Threaten Their Neighbors"
(Al Jazeera) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Al Jazeera in an interview on Monday, "The people of Iran are incredible people, very resourceful, very entrepreneurial. But it's their regime that's been a problem. And instead, they've chosen to spend the wealth of their country to support Hizbullah and Hamas and Shiite militias inside of Iraq, and to try to destabilize Syria when [President Assad] was there." Rubio called on Iran to end its nuclear program and to curtail its drone and missile program. He accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons to "threaten and blackmail the world." "I think the best way to stability, given the people who are in charge in Iran, is to destroy the ability of Iran in the future to launch these missiles and these drones against...infrastructure and civilian populations." "This is an Iran that's weaker than it's been in 10 years. Imagine five years from now, or three from now, when they had more missiles, more drones, what they would have been willing to do to their neighbors and to us - that was intolerable. That's why this needed to be done now." Iran needs "to stop sponsoring terrorism, and they need to stop building weapons that can threaten their neighbors." The "short-range missiles that they're launching, they only have one purpose, and that is to attack Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Qatar and Kuwait and Bahrain." Rubio rejected Iran's demand that it must maintain "sovereignty" over the Strait of Hormuz as part of any agreement to end the war. "The Strait of Hormuz will be open when this operation is over...one way or another. It will be open because Iran agrees to abide by international law and not block the commercial waterway, or a coalition of nations around the world and the region, with the participation of the United States, will make sure that it's open."