Secretary of State Marco Rubio is warning hostile state actors, Iran in particular, that the United States will no longer engage in “hostage diplomacy.”
Rubio made the remarks ahead of a flag-raising ceremony at the State Department to mark U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day. The top diplomat asked for a moment of reflection, noting the recent return of six U.S. soldiers killed in the Iranian counterstrikes following Operation Epic Fury.
“I think we are all seeing right now the threat this clerical regime poses to the region and to the world. They are trying to hold the world hostage,” the secretary of state said. “They are attacking their neighbors — they are attacking neighboring countries, their energy infrastructure, their civilian population, they’re attacking embassies. This is a terrorist government. This is a terroristic regime.”
“And the objective of this mission is to destroy their ability to continue to do that and we are well on our way to achieving that objective every single day with overwhelming force, with overwhelming precision,” Rubio said.
He took the opportunity to note the relevance of Iran to U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day — decrying the “clerical regime” as not only the “worst offenders in the world of terrorism” but also the “worst offenders in the world of hostage-taking.”
Rubio took to reassuring the public about the U.S. military’s strategy, working to gut the Iranian Navy.
“I want everyone to know your military is getting the job done, and every single day this regime in Iran has less missiles, less launchers, their factories work less, and their navy is being eviscerated,” he said. “And the world is going to be safer and a better place when this mission is accomplished.”
The Department of State designated the Islamic Republic of Iran as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention” on Feb. 27. It was the first such designation made since the category was established by Trump with the “Executive Order to Protect U.S. Nationals from Wrongful Detention Abroad” that was published in September.
“For decades, Iran has continued to cruelly detain innocent Americans, as well as citizens of other nations, to use as political leverage against other states. This abhorrent practice must end,” Rubio wrote in the designation announcement.
Hostage diplomacy has been a recognized tool of Iranian politics since the Islamic Revolution upheaved the country in 1979. Iranian student groups loyal to the ayatollah stormed and captured the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where they held dozens of U.S. citizens hostage for 444 days.
Since 1979, close to a hundred U.S. citizens have been detained or held hostage by the Islamic Republic — a practice that Rubio told reporters on Monday the Trump administration will no longer tolerate from any country.
“[President Donald Trump] has made — since the very first day in office — the return of Americans held abroad unjustly a priority of his administration and since his inauguration a little over a year ago, over 100 Americans have been brought home,” the State Secretary said.
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He continued, “[Trump] is focused on ending the cycle of exploitation — of saying ‘enough is enough,’ of ending the cycle in which Americans are somehow viewed as a valuable commodity — that you can grab an American, you can unjustly hold them, and you can trade them later on for some diplomatic concession or some political concession. We have to end that cycle.”
Trump said over the weekend that the ultimate decision to end the ongoing conflict with Iran will be made in cooperation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday that the U.S. government expects the operation to last approximately four to six weeks.