With Rubio as top diplomat, Trump signals hard-line Iran approach
The Florida Republican has hawkish views on Iran and is fiercely pro-Israel.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), suggests he'll again take a confrontational approach to Iran in his second term.
Rubio, 53, hails from the Republican establishment that has long pushed for a tougher line on Tehran and its regional proxies. He was a vocal critic of former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and later supported Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the landmark accord in 2018.
He also backed Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions, which failed to bring Iran back to the negotiating table as intended but succeeded in crippling its oil-dependent economy. Earlier this year, Rubio sponsored bipartisan legislation that would impose sanctions on foreign ports and refineries that process Iranian-exported petroleum.
Trump has called for reaching a new deal, a prospect that Rubio said in September was “theoretically” possible but “unlikely” as long as Iran continues its nuclear advancements and sponsorship of regional terrorism.
