Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) celebrated the assassination of Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, calling it a “service to humanity.”
Nasrallah was assassinated in Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in a Beirut suburb by the Israeli Air Force with bunker-buster bombs on Friday. In an appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press, Rubio waved away concerns about Iranian retaliation, arguing that the hit was the right move by Israel.
“Well, I think if Nasrallah was still alive, the threat of a broader conflict is even higher,” he responded, over concerns that his killing would lead to an escalation. “This is a guy who cheerfully said, ‘Death to America, Death to Israel.’ Now when you’re a country, and someone runs an organization that exists for the specific and defined purpose of destroying you, you have no choice but to treat that person as an enemy and to confront them likewise. This is the guy that spent years cheering on suicide bombings that killed innocents and the kidnapping of Israelis.”
“There are 60,000 Israelis right now who, for almost a year over ago, almost a year now, have had to leave their homes in northern Israel and are living in hotels in Tel Aviv, and their kids are going to school online in conference rooms because the group that Nasrallah headed, which is Hezbollah, was using anti-tank weapons — not guided, long-range missiles — anti-tank weapons to target them and civilian infrastructure,” Rubio continued. “So people had to leave. What country can have 60,000 people permanently displaced? And that’s what this issue with Hezbollah is all about.”
“And so Israel has no choice but to defend itself,” he added. “And so wiping out not just Nasrallah, but the senior leadership of this evil organization, I think, is a service to humanity.”
As for an Iranian response, Rubio said that they were going to continue to try and dominate the region in any way they can, so they should always be put on the back foot.
“Anytime the Iranian regime is on defense, it’s good for the world, good for America, and good for Israel,” he said. “It will be up to the Iranians to decide what they’re going to do, but I will tell you that I believe that they will find themselves in a very precarious situation if, in fact, they do escalate this on their part.”
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Iranian leadership has been split as to how to respond to the conflict with Israel. Reports indicated that Tehran was unprepared for Hamas’s Oct. 7 surprise attack, and refused to fully enter the war to defend the group. Israel has put Iran on its back foot, carrying out daring strikes within Iran, including the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran failed to respond, despite promises to.
Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy, has been thrown into disarray following Israel’s pager and communications attacks, along with the assassinations of about 30 senior members, effectively wiping out the militant group’s leadership.