Rubio : Iran building missiles designed solely to strike America

aol.co.uk · Feb 26, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if a deal over its enrichment programme is not reached - REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueIran is rebuilding its nuclear programme and producing missiles designed to strike America, Marco Rubio has said.The US secretary of state said the Islamic Republic was not enriching uranium, “but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can”.Before key talks between Iran and the US, he also claimed that Tehran was trying to “achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles”.Representatives from both countries will meet in Geneva on Thursday to try to resolve a long-standing dispute over Washington’s refusal to allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.While the talks will focus on Iran’s nuclear programme, Mr Rubio said Iran’s refusal to discuss its ballistic ‌missile programme was a “major problem” that would have to be addressed eventually, as the missiles are “designed solely to strike America”.“If you can’t even make progress on the nuclear programme, it’s going to be hard to make progress on the ballistic missiles as well,” he told reporters.Credit: X / @FarsNews_AgencyDonald Trump, the US president, has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if a deal over its enrichment programme is not reached.In recent weeks, the US has built the largest military presence in the Middle East since the Iraq War. The US has deployed some of its most advanced fighter jets to Israel for the first time, while US officials have told Israel to make the first strike on Iran, according to reports.On Tuesday, Mr Trump said Iran wanted “to start all over again” with its enrichment programme after the US attacked its nuclear facility last June. He added that Tehran was “at this moment again pursuing their sinister nuclear ambitions”.Before the talks, Abbas Araghchi, Tehran’s foreign minister, handed the country’s nuclear proposal to Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, his Omani counterpart, who is mediating the talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the US envoys. Iran’s state news agency said the document contained “the key elements of a potential agreement”.Abbas Araghchi (left) met with Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, the Omani foreign minister, on Wednesday - REUTERSTehran is also trying to tempt Mr Trump to invest in its vast oil and gas reserves as a sweetener to avoid war and cut a nuclear deal, sources told the Financial Times. One person briefed on the talks described the offer as a “commercial bonanza”, seeking to appeal to the president’s taste for deals.In the past few months, Mr Trump has made multiple threats to strike Iran over its killing of anti-regime protesters and its nuclear campaign.US military vessels have moved to the Middle East, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier and top-of-the-line F-22 raptor combat jets. They have been deployed to Israel for the first time, increasing concerns that Washington is preparing an attack.1402 US Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groupsThe president’s lengthy State of the Union address, delivered on Tuesday to Congress, only stirred tensions.He railed against Iran and taunted Ali Khamenei, Tehran’s supreme leader, calling the country the “world’s number one sponsor of terror” and vowing never to allow it to have a nuclear weapon.He also claimed that Tehran had “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America”.Referring to strikes that the US carried out on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, Mr Trump said Iran wanted “to start all over again” with its enrichment programme and was “at this moment again pursuing their sinister nuclear ambitions”.ReutersIran dismissed Mr Trump’s claims as “big lies”.The foreign ministry said: “Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles and the number of casualties during January’s unrest, is simply the repetition of ‘big lies’.”Senior advisers to Mr Trump would prefer Israel to strike Iran before the US decides whether to launch an assault, as “the politics are a lot better”, sources told Politico.The advisers believe that Iran would retaliate against Israeli strikes and thus give impetus to American voters to support a US attack.A new AP-NORC poll found that many US adults continued to view Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat, but few Americans had a lot of trust in Mr Trump’s judgment about the use of military force.The survey was conducted from Feb 19-23. It found that about half of US adults were “extremely” or “very” concerned that Iran’s nuclear programme posed a direct threat to the US, but only about one quarter of Americans said they had a lot of trust in Mr Trump on relationships with adversaries or the use of military force abroad.Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, reiterated on Thursday morning that Khamenei has banned the construction of weapons of mass destruction, which “clearly means Tehran won’t develop nuclear weapons”.On Feb 19, Mr Trump warned that Iran must make a deal in 10 to 15 days or “really bad things” would happen.JD Vance, the US vice-president, echoed his threats, telling Fox News on Wednesday: “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. That would be the ultimate military objective, if that’s the route that [Mr Trump] chose.”