{"id":2435381,"date":"2025-05-16T06:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T10:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rubio-calls-iran-a-threshold-nuclear-weapon-state-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T06:32:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T10:32:58","slug":"rubio-calls-iran-a-threshold-nuclear-weapon-state-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rubio-calls-iran-a-threshold-nuclear-weapon-state-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio calls Iran a \u2018threshold nuclear weapon state\u2019 &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frubio-calls-iran-a-threshold-nuclear-weapon-state-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2435381&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>in a recent interview with Fox News host Sean hannity, Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed concerns regarding Iran&#8217;s nuclear capabilities, stressing that the country is now a &#8220;threshold nuclear weapon state.&#8221; during the discussion, Rubio supported President Donald Trump&#8217;s cautious approach towards negotiating a deal with Iran, emphasizing that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gazan-civilians-involved-in-every-stage-of-hamas-hostage-scheme-freed-israelis-reveal\/\" title=\"Gazan civilians involved in all stages of Hamas hostage scheme, say freed Israelis\">main issue lies<\/a> with Iran&#8217;s governing regime rather than its people. He underscored the urgency of addressing Iran&#8217;s nuclear ambitions, noting that the regime has reached a 60% enrichment level, which puts them close to being able to produce nuclear weapons. Rubio reaffirmed the need for a fair negotiation process to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,highlighting the risks not only to the U.S. and its allies but to overall regional stability. He conveyed hope for a peaceful resolution while acknowledging the complexities of the situation, especially the decision-making power of Iran&#8217;s supreme leader.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Rubio calls Iran a &lsquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >threshold nuclear weapon state&#038;rsquo<\/a>;<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2122934\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Secretary of State <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/marco-rubio\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Marco Rubio<\/a> spoke with Fox News host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/sean-hannity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Sean Hannity<\/a> on Thursday night about President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Donald Trump&rsquo;s<\/a> trip to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/middle-east\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Middle East<\/a>. One of the main topics the pair discussed was Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has teased on multiple occasions during the trip that he is cautiously close to making a deal with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Iran<\/a> regarding the country&rsquo;s nuclear capabilities, with Trump maintaining that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon. Rubio echoed this sentiment on Thursday in his interview with Hannity, explicitly mentioning the country&rsquo;s governing regime.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-washington-briefing\/3410936\/trump-iran-mission-better-deal-than-obama\/\">Trump&rsquo;s very possible mission: Get an Iran deal that&rsquo;s better than Obama&rsquo;s<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/defense\/3411666\/putin-is-a-no-show-in-turkey-for-peace-talks\/\">Putin is a no-show in Turkey for peace talks, but Trump says he hopes Russia and Ukraine can &#8216;do something&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3411647\/dia-assessment-warning-advanced-weaponry-us-foes\/\">DIA releases assessment warning of &lsquo;advanced&rsquo; weaponry dangers from US foes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>&ldquo;Look, the regime &ndash; and our problem is not with the Iranian people,&rdquo; Rubio <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/releases\/office-of-the-spokesperson\/2025\/05\/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-with-sean-hannity-of-fox-news-2\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>. &ldquo;The Iranian people are a peaceful people, an ancient civilization and culture we admire greatly.&nbsp;Our problem is with a clerical regime that is behind every problem in the region: Hizballah, Hamas, the Houthis, the militias that have conducted attacks out of Iraq and Syria. They all &ndash; it &ndash; they all track back to the Iranian regime.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Then Rubio gave a blunt response about the possibility of Iran having nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A regime like that can never have nuclear weapons, and the president has made clear they will not have a nuclear weapon,&rdquo; Rubio said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then, the secretary of state explained why he felt Trump and Iran could work out a deal. He emphasized that the president wanted Iran to become prosperous and flourish. However, he said, ultimately, it&rsquo;s up to Iran&rsquo;s leader.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;But in the end, the decision lies in the hands of one person, and that&rsquo;s the supreme leader in Iran,&rdquo; Rubio said. &ldquo;And I hope he chooses the path of peace and prosperity, not a destructive path. And we&rsquo;ll see how that plays out.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the optimism, Rubio continued to warn of the dangers that come with Iran becoming a nuclear power. It&rsquo;s a reality that is not too far off, specifically highlighting several reports that revealed Iran is at a 60% enrichment level, which essentially meant that Iran is at the &ldquo;threshold of a nuclear weapon.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rubio explained the specifics to Hannity and stressed the valid concerns about the reality of Iran&rsquo;s nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Look, when you say 60, it&rsquo;s misleading when people hear that number because they think 60% enrichment and 90% is what you need for a weapon,&rdquo; Rubio explained. &ldquo;Actually, 90% of the work it takes to get to weapons-grade enrichment is getting to 60.&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Once you&rsquo;re at 60, you&rsquo;re 90% of the way there,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;You are, in essence, a threshold nuclear weapon state, which is what Iran basically has become. They are at the threshold of a nuclear weapon. If they decided to do so, they could do so very quickly. If they stockpile enough of that 60% enriched, they could very quickly turn it into 90 and weaponize it.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He also explained the trepidation associated with this real possibility, which is an impetus for wanting to reach a fair and legitimate deal quickly with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the danger we face right now,&rdquo; Rubio warned. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the urgency here. That&rsquo;s why Israel is &ndash; feels urgency about it, and that&rsquo;s why we feel urgency about it, but not just us. Throughout the Gulf region, no country in the region wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And you also talk about not just a weapon; they have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/4-hostile-regimes-testing-joe-biden-during-his-first-months-in-office\/\" title=\"4 Hostile ...s Testing Joe Biden During His First Months In Office\">long-range missiles<\/a> that they can deliver that weapon, those weapons, through,&rdquo; he <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/releases\/office-of-the-spokesperson\/2025\/05\/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-with-sean-hannity-of-fox-news-2\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">added<\/a>. &ldquo;So this is a very grave risk.&nbsp;And they are enriching at that level, and they are openly doing it, by the way. In fact, their congress, for &ndash; their legislative branch actually passed a law requiring them to enrich at a certain level because JCPOA, the Obama deal with Iran, was canceled.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is a critical moment,&rdquo; Rubio said.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio reiterated his desire for the Iranians to negotiate their nuclear ambitions fairly and honestly, classifying it as urgent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/editorials\/3410431\/marco-rubio-trump-india-pakistan-ceasefire\/\"><strong>IN PRAISE OF MARCO RUBIO, TRUMP&rsquo;S MR. FIX IT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The President has made it a priority,&rdquo; Rubio said. &ldquo;And now people understand the urgency here because they are fairly close, too close for comfort, to a nuclear weapon.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have to roll that back one way or another,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;We hope it&rsquo;s peacefully and through the process of negotiation.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2122934\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2122934\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rubio labels Iran a &#8216;threshold nuclear weapon state&#8217; during an interview with Sean Hannity, discussing Trump&#8217;s Middle East trip and the potential for a deal on Iran&#8217;s nuclear capabilities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2677,"featured_media":2435382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AP25034646203788-scaled-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[3823,37107,5438,55361,32076],"class_list":["post-2435381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-iran","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-rubio","tag-threshold-state","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AP25034646203788-scaled-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2435381"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2435385,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435381\/revisions\/2435385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2435382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2435381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2435381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2435381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}