March 2 (UPI) — Operation Epic Fury’s mission is to eliminate threats posed by Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles and naval capabilities, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday, as the Trump administration fends off criticism that the U.S. attack lacks a clear strategic objective.
“I don’t know what the confusion is,” Rubio told reporters Monday afternoon on Capitol Hill before briefing House and Senate leaders on the mission.
“The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy, particularly to naval assets. That is what it is focused on doing right now, and it’s doing quite successfully.”
Since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Saturday, the Trump administration has come under scrutiny over the mission.
In announcing what he called “major combat operations” against Iran, Trump early Saturday said he was determined to deny Iran nuclear weapons while instructing the Iranian people to seize their government once the strikes were done.
No timeline or clear scope for the mission was given, raising concerns among Democrats, critics and some Republicans about the United States possibly entering another war in the Middle East, four years after exiting its 20-year military operation in Afghanistan. The strikes also come months after the United States attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities. Trump officials have repeatedly stated the facilities have been “obliterated.”
Earlier Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that Tehran’s development of nuclear capabilities, ballistic missiles and drones was “no longer a tolerable risk,” while disputing the notion that the mission was about regime change.
“There is no strategic goal,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said in a statement following Hegseth’s press conference. “He said this isn’t about ‘regime change’ despite the President saying otherwise, repeatedly. That means they can’t explain how all of this makes Americans safer in the end.”
In explaining the mission to reporters on Monday afternoon, Rubio said is focused on the Islamic regime’s missile and drone capabilities because Iran was building a conventional “shield” behind which it could pursue its nuclear ambitions.
“That is what they were trying to do is put themselves in a place of immunity where the damage they could inflict on the region would be so high that no one can do anything about their nuclear program,” he said.
On attacking Iran’s navy, Rubio said it was to prevent Tehran from threatening global shipping.
Rubio said the operation was launched when it was because U.S. officials knew Israel was going to strike Iran and believed Tehran would retaliate against American forces. He said joining the attack alongside Israel was intended to reduce U.S. casualties and deaths by preempting that response.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed and then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act,” he said.
Rubio said the “imminent threat” was Iran’s expected retaliation against U.S. forces after Israel’s offensive.
“If we waited for them to hit us first after they were attacked by someone else — Israel attacked them — they hit us first and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more casualties and more deaths,” he said. “We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage.”
Concerning Trump’s regime-change rhetoric, Rubio explained the mission’s goal is not regime change but they would welcome a new government in Tehran.
“We would not mind, we would not be heartbroken and we hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country,” he said. “We would love for that to be possible, but the objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and of their naval capabilities.”
Six U.S. service members have so far died fighting Iran, U.S. Central Command announced Monday. Three fighter jets were also shot down over Kuwait by the country’s air defense system in what is being called friendly fire.
According to the Iranian Red Crescent, 555 people across Iran have been killed in the U.S. and Israeli strikes. Several senior Iranian officials, including its spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been killed.
Iran has responded with retaliatory strikes targeting U.S. targets throughout the Gulf and Israel. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan are among countries that have been attacked.
Trump has warned additional U.S. service members are likely to die before the mission is over.
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