Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with CBS’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday when pressed for details about intelligence US officials used to justify attacking three Iranian nuclear sites Saturday evening and thrusting the United States squarely into an escalating Middle East conflict.
“Are you saying that the United States did not see intelligence that the Supreme Leader had ordered weaponization?” Brennan asked.
“That’s irrelevant!” Rubio replied in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “I see that question being asked in the media all the time. That’s an irrelevant question. They have everything they need to build a weapon.”
“That is the key point in U.S. intelligence assessments,” Brennan said.
“No, it’s not!” Rubio fired back.
“Yes, it was,” Brennan replied.
“I know that better than you know that,” Rubio said. “And I know that’s not the case.”
“I’m asking you whether the order was given,” Brennan said.
“It doesn’t matter if the order was given!” Rubio said. “They have everything they need to build nuclear weapons. Why would you bury things in a mountain 300 feet under the ground? … Why do they have 60 percent enriched uranium? You don’t need 60 percent enriched uranium. The only countries in the world that have uranium at 60 percent are countries that have nuclear weapons.”
In March, Gabbard testified to Congress that the U.S. “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
Rubio told Brennan it was an “inaccurate representation”.
“That’s not how intelligence is read. That’s not how intelligence is used,” he continued. ….”Forget about intelligence, what the IAEA knows. They are enriching uranium well beyond anything you need for a civil nuclear program……they have everything they need for a nuclear weapon. They have the delivery mechanisms, they have the enrichment capability, they have the highly enriched uranium that is stored. That’s all we need to see — especially in the hands of a regime that’s already involved in terrorism and proxies and all kinds of things around there.”
