Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States can see the “finish line” of its war with Iran, disclosed that messages are being exchanged between Washington and Tehran with the potential for direct talks, and warned that NATO’s future as a meaningful alliance will need to be reassessed once the fighting ends.

“We can see the finish line. It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, but it is coming,” Rubio told Fox News. He said communications between the two sides are ongoing. “There are messages being exchanged, there are talks going on. There is the potential for a direct meeting at some point,” he said.

Rubio also addressed the fundamental rationale for the war in a video posted to the White House’s X account, arguing that the United States had no choice but to act when it did. Iran, he said, was assembling a “conventional shield” — a sufficiently large arsenal of missiles and drones to deter any attack on its nuclear facilities — and was “on the verge” of a weapons program too powerful to defeat.

“Iran wants to have nuclear weapons. Of that there is no doubt,” Rubio said. He dismissed the claim that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was intended for civilian energy production, noting that a peaceful program would not be built underground “away from the public glare” and that Iran would simply have imported fuel. “Iran has been offered every opportunity to have a nuclear program that allows them to have energy, not weapons, and every single time they have turned it down,” he said.

Rubio argued the strikes were not only justified but necessary before that window closed. “Under no circumstances can a country run by radical Shia clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future ever possess nuclear weapons,” he said. “This was our last best chance” to prevent it.

On NATO, Rubio echoed President Trump’s recent attacks against the alliance, stopping short of calling for withdrawal but making clear that a reckoning is coming.

“I do think, unfortunately, we are going to have to reexamine whether or not this alliance that has served this country well for a while is still serving that purpose, or has it now become a one-way street where America is simply in a position to defend Europe, but when we need the help of our allies, they’re going to deny us basing rights, and they’re going to deny us overflight,” Rubio said.

Rubio added that the ultimate decision on NATO’s future rests with Trump. “That’s a decision for the president to make, and he’ll have to make it.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)