Sen. Rubio: Iran Is Central Issue in Middle East

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the central issue in the Middle East is not the Israel-Palestinian issue but “Iran’s ambition to be a regional hegemonic power.”

Speaking to i24News in Israel on Friday, Rubio discussed a wide range of topics, including the thousands of displaced Israelis in the northern part of the country, the ongoing threat from Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and the state of the American university there.

As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its sixth month, many in the West are calling for a negotiated truce to end the violence. Rubio cautioned that if the United States’ support for Israel doesn’t remain firm, it will embolden Iran’s proxy militia in the north.

“Hezbollah’s willingness to agree to some return of some sort of demilitarized zone … will be, in very many ways, driven by what their perceptions are of international support for Israel,” Rubio said.

Rubio noted that many Americans don’t know the full extent of the threat Hezbollah imposes on Israelis citizens.

“Hezbollah is multiple times more capable militarily than Hamas,” he said. “It has not just an arsenal of rockets, but guided munitions. They can produce them domestically. And basically, every single day, there are alerts and launches against the north of Israel.”

Ultimately, Rubio said all the chaos in the Middle East can be traced back to Iran.

“I think one of the biggest lies or misunderstandings in the debate about all of this is that somehow, the central issue in the region is the Israeli-Palestinian issue,” he said. “It is not. The central issue in this region is Iran’s ambition to be a regional hegemonic power.”

Rubio noted that Iran has control over the Iraqi and Syrian governments, and with Hezbollah and Houthis in Yemen as troublesome proxies, Iran cannot be allowed nuclear capabilities.

“I think it is really important for people to wrap their heads around the fact that the central irritant of the destabilization, violence, and suffering in this region is not the Israeli-Palestinian issue,” he said. “If the Iranian regime were not in power and did not exist, there would be no Hezbollah. There probably would be no Hamas, certainly not with these capabilities.

“There most certainly would be no Houthi threat. Syria would look very different. Iraq would look very different. Imagine a region without the Iranian regime.”