Rubio warns Iran against 'suicidal' closing of Strait of Hormuz; Vance says retaliation will be met with 'overwhelming force'

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance answered tough questions about the successful U.S. attack on Iran in a pair of interviews on Sunday morning.

The Trump administration is touting the success of "Operation Midnight Hammer," in which a fleet of B-2 bombers flew deep into Iran and obliterated sites known to be associated with Iran's nuclear development capabilities. Iran has not yet retaliated but had issued numerous threats against the U.S. before the strike.

'It will have a lot more impact on the rest of the world, a lot more impact on the rest of the world. That would be a suicidal move on their part because I think the whole world would come against them if they did that.'

Rubio had a lively discussion that veered into debate with Margaret Brennan of "Face the Nation" on CBS News. Brennan tried to corner Rubio on whether the U.S. was pressing for regime change in Iran in their exchange, but Rubio made it clear that the only goal was to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

"A serious foreign policy is one that's focused on identifying what our national interest is. You don't have to like the regime," said Rubio.

"There are a lot of regimes around the world that we don't like. Okay, but in this particular case, what we are focused on is not the changing of the regime. Okay, that's up to the Iranian people if they want to do that, but that's not what we're focused on. Our national interest is about one thing, and that is Iran not getting anywhere near the capability to weaponize and have nuclear weapons. They're not going to get anywhere near that capability. The president has made that clear from day one," he continued.

"Our preference for solving that problem, that very specific problem, is through diplomacy. We've said that. We've given it every opportunity. They played games; they tried delay tactics," Rubio added.

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Rubio considered the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a move that would significantly imperil the oil trade, and warned that Iran would earn the ire of the entire globe if it did so.

"If they mine the Straits of Hormuz, the Chinese are going to pay a huge price," he said. "And every other country in the world is going to pay a huge price. We will too. It will have some impact on us. It will have a lot more impact on the rest of the world, a lot more impact on the rest of the world. That would be a suicidal move on their part because I think the whole world would come against them if they did that."

Brennan also pressed Rubio on the national intelligence assessment that found no evidence that Iran's supreme leader had ordered nuclear weaponization. Rubio argued that this didn't matter because Iran had all the elements to enrich uranium and obtain nuclear weapons.

"That's irrelevant. I see that question being asked in the media. That's an irrelevant question. They have everything they need to build the weapon," Rubio said before getting interrupted by Brennan.

"That is the key point in U.S. intelligence assessments. You know that," she replied.

"No, it's not," he fired back. "I know that better than you know that, and I know that that's not the case. You don't know what you're talking about ..."

Rubio went on to say the intelligence didn't matter, and he pummeled Brennan with the known evidence that Iran could obtain nuclear weaponization if unopposed.

"Forget about intelligence. What the IAEA knows: they are enriching uranium well beyond anything you need for a civil nuclear program," he said. "So why would you enrich uranium at 60%, if you don't intend to one day use it to take it to 90% and build a weapon? Why are you developing ICBMs? Why do you have 8,000 short-range missiles and 2,000 to 3,000 long, mid-range missiles that you continue to develop?"

"Understood," she replied.

Rubio also asserted that the U.S. would respond if Iran retaliated against U.S. bases in the Middle East.

'If they continue to support terrorism, nuclear weapons programs, then they're going to find overwhelming American force from the American military.'

In an interview with Jon Karl on "This Week" on ABC News, Vance stayed consistent with the messaging from the White House that the only goal of the bombing operation was to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He also warned that the U.S. was prepared to respond with "overwhelming force" if Iran retaliated.

"If they continue to pursue a nuclear weapon, you're also going to see overwhelming force from the American people. So we've got really the ball in Iran's court here," he said.

"If they make smart decisions, I think they're going to find us willing to work with them. If they continue to support terrorism, nuclear weapons programs, then they're going to find overwhelming American force from the American military. That is really the choice before the Iranians. And that's a choice only they can make."

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Vance also responded to a comment from Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of the Russian Federation, who said that Iran still had nuclear enrichment capabilities and the Iranian program would continue.

"I think it's a bizarre response, but I also don't know that that guy speaks for President Putin or for the Russian government," said the vice president.

"One of the things that we've picked up, Jon, in our conversations with the Russians over the last few months, despite our many disagreements, of course, with the state of Russia — they've been very consistent that they don't want Iran to get a nuclear weapon," Vance explained.

"Iran having a nuclear weapon, nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, is a disaster for pretty much everybody. It's one of the few issues where Russia, China, and the United States have broad agreement is that we don't want to see a nuclear arms race in the Middle East," he added. "So what the president did was very important. I'll let President Putin speak to what the official Russian position on this is."

While it is too early to assess whether Iran's nuclear capabilities have been completely wiped out, Vance said that the operation ensured that Iran no longer has the capacity to obtain weapons-grade uranium.

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