Rubio: Economic Pressure on Weakened Iran Makes Further U.S. Military Action Unnecessary

• Iran claimed it struck a U.S. radar system in Bahrain.
• Iran told the UN nuclear watchdog it would not continue monitoring discussions while facing military threats.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that additional U.S. military action against Iran is unnecessary because the economic pressure Washington is applying to a weakened Islamic Republic is already so severe.

Speaking to the Federalist Society, Rubio reinforced President Donald Trump’s statement earlier in the week that the war “militarily is effectively over.”

“And right now, frankly, the economic pain that we are inflicting on that regime is so great that there’s no need for military action because we’ve weakened them so much,” Rubio said. “But I think victory is ensuring that they never have a nuclear weapon.”

Rubio also acknowledged the economic strain Americans have felt because of the war, which has raised fuel costs and affected nearly every sector of the global economy.

He said it would have been easy for Trump to ignore the threat from Iran’s nuclear program, avoid an unpopular war, and “leave it for the next person to worry about,” but the president decided he was “not going to leave it unaddressed.”

“But it’s hard,” Rubio said. “It’s not easy and it’s difficult. And oftentimes it inflicts, you know, pain, economic pain and otherwise. So we recognize that.”

U.S. says it intercepted Iranian drones after Iran claims strike in Bahrain

The U.S. military said Friday it shot down two Iranian attack drones headed toward Bahrain, denying Iran’s claim that it had struck a U.S. radar system in the kingdom. CENTCOM, the U.S. command center covering the region, said there were no injuries or damage.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited a Revolutionary Guard statement saying the attack on the radar system followed a U.S. strike on a telecommunications pole in the southern Iranian port of Sirik. It was Iran’s first report of targeting a facility in Bahrain since September.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Iran says a tanker struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Friday that a liquefied petroleum gas tanker struck a mine and caused an explosion while trying to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

The Guard said the vessel ignored repeated warnings while transiting the eastern part of the strait. The claim could not be independently verified.

In a related development, the United Nations said October had the highest number of incidents against commercial ships in the contested waters since February, when the Iran war began.

The UN’s International Maritime Organization said 25 seafarers died and many others were injured or remain missing following some 134 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East maritime area as of Nov. 11.

Iran: Nuclear monitoring cannot proceed while under threat

Iran told the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that discussions on nuclear monitoring cannot proceed while the country is facing military threats.

According to a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran insists inspections cannot resume amid U.S. threats to target its nuclear facilities. Iran has not given inspectors access to sites affected by Israeli and U.S. strikes during the June 2025 war.

Iran warns U.S. and Israel that renewed war would be met with ‘decisive response’

Iran’s deputy UN ambassador, Gholamhossein Darzi, told the UN Security Council Friday that its response to any renewed fighting would be “directed against the source of aggression, wherever it may be.”

Dampening prospects for new talks, he said U.S. threats and attacks during “good faith” negotiations over the past two years “have created profound distrust and serious doubt about the prospects of renewed negotiations without credible guarantees against the repetition of such unlawful actions.”

Darzi clashed with Bahrain, which called the meeting on behalf of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, as well as with the United States.

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