Representative Randy Fine (R-FL) questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, asking, "What changed" in Democrats' stance toward Iran as the conflict with the United States remains in limbo.
Rep. Fine began by quoting three Democratic members of the Committee who had previously expressed strong opposition to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, then asked, "What changed? And why would people say [Iran] must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, and then when we are actually doing what is necessary to make sure that they don't, all of a sudden there is a very different tone?"
Secretary Rubio agreed that not only is Congress in opposition to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, but the entire world is. Moreover, he pointed out that "when we saw that they were building up this conventional shield behind which they were going to hide their nuclear reactor program and hope they would be immune from action, we had to address it."
Rubio further commented, "If we had not done so in about a year, Iran would have had a conventional shield, and they could have been able to threaten not just the region, but parts of Europe, and they would have said, 'If you come after us and our nuclear program, we will impose costs on you that you cannot bear, so now you have to let us have a nuclear weapon."
"So would it be fair to say, then," Rep. Fine continued, "that standing in the way of what you are trying to do over there effectively is emboldening and enabling Iran to get that nuclear weapon?"
Rubio replied that the sole reason Iran would not attempt to obtain a nuclear weapon "is because they are forced not to. They are never going to do that voluntarily."
