US Secretary Rubio says the war with Iran has ended

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio maintained on Wednesday that the conflict with Iran had ended, even as lethal attacks continued.

“We’re no longer conducting sustained strikes inside Iran to degrade their military, because Epic Fury is over,” Rubio said to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claiming the United States had achieved victory.

The U.S.–Israeli operation, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, has dominated the Middle East since the first strikes on Iran on February 28.

In response, Iran has targeted U.S. allies in the region and effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping route for Gulf oil and gas.

“We define victory as destroying their defense industrial base, significantly reducing the number of missile launchers that they possess, significantly reducing their stockpile of drones,” Rubio said. “And we achieved all those, in addition to destroying what they had left of an air force and wiping out their entire conventional navy.”

Democrats strongly contested Rubio’s statement, arguing the conflict is still ongoing. Iran struck Kuwait’s airport on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding 63, a major escalation. Bahrain, which also hosts a significant U.S. military presence, experienced overnight drone strikes from Iran.

“You can change the name of the operation. It doesn’t change the fact that the Strait’s still closed, and my service members, and all of our service members, are still in harm’s way,” Representative Sara Jacobs of California told Rubio.

Rubio updated legislators on negotiations with Iran, noting that the Islamic Republic’s highly enriched uranium stockpiles were central to the talks and that Tehran has not yet agreed to a peace deal.

Washington insists Iran must surrender its near‑weapons‑grade enriched uranium, agree to curb its nuclear activities, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz for any peace agreement to take effect.

“I think now, in some of the papers that have been exchanged back and forth, it’s clearly addressed, but we…still don’t have final sign off from their system as of this morning,” Rubio told the House committee.

Iran has said it needs the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before engaging in substantive talks on its nuclear program and has dismissed earlier comments by U.S. President Donald Trump who suggested that its stockpile of enriched uranium would ultimately be destroyed.

Vanguard News

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