Name: 'I want this recorded for history': Marco Rubio’s 2015 Iran warning resurfaces and looks spot on
Uploaded: 2026-03-20T06:48:13.000Z
Duration: 18 min 44 s
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I do want to be recorded for history's purposes.

Adverbs of manner

Iran will immediately use the money that it's receiving and sanctions relief to begin to build up its conventional capabilities.

It will establish the most dominant military power in the region outside of the United States, but

They'll also continue to build long range missiles, missiles capable of reaching the United States.

And then at some point in the near future, when the time is right, they will build a nuclear weapon.

And they will do so because at that point they will know that they have become immune.

And then they become an established nuclear weapons power.

History will condemn us for not doing what needed to be done at this critical moment in the world's history.

An old clip of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking about Iran on the floor of Senate is being widely shared and he is being hailed as prescient.

Rubio, then a Senator representing Florida, warned against the Iranian nuclear deal negotiated by Barack Obama's administration.

I think everything that needs to be said about the details of this deal have already been said.

I do want to be recorded for history's purposes before I know what was going to happen in regards to this.

If it goes through, Iran will immediately use the money that it's receiving and sanctions relief to begin to build up its conventional capabilities.

It will establish the most dominant military power in the region outside of the United States.

And it will raise the price of us operating in the region.

They're going to build anti access capabilities, rockets capable of destroying our aircraft carriers and ships, continue to build these swift boats that are able to come on us, these fast boats that are able to swarm our naval assets and they'll make it harder and harder for US troops to be in the region.

They'll also work with other terrorist groups in the region to target American servicemen and women.

And they may or may not deny that they're involved, but

they will target us and raise the price of our presence in the Middle east until they hope to completely pull us out of that region.

Those are not affected by this deal and they'll continue to build them as they've been doing.

And then at some point in the near future, when the time is right, they will build a nuclear weapon and they will do so because at that point they will know that they have become immune, that we will no longer be able to strike their nuclear program because the price of doing so will be too high.

Today it's called North Korea, where a lunatic possesses dozens of nuclear weapons and a long range rocket that can already reach the United States and we cannot do anything about it.

An attack on North Korea today would result in an attack on Tokyo or Seoul or Guam or Hawaii or California.

And so the world must now live with a lunatic in possession of nuclear weapons.

To reach a point where they become immune to any sort of credible military threat because the price of a military strike would be too high.

And never in the history of the world has such a regime ever possessed weapons so capable of destruction.

Iran is led by a supreme leader who is a radical Shia cleric with an apocalyptic vision of the future.

He is not a traditional geopolitical actor who makes decisions on the basis of borders or simply history or because of ambitions.

He has an religious apocalyptic vision of the future, one that calls for triggering a conflict between the non Muslim world and the Muslim world, one that he feels especially obligated to trigger.

And he's going to possess nuclear weapons.

This is the world that we are on the verge of leaving our children to inherit.

And perhaps we ourselves will have to share in it.

And so I want to be recorded for history's purposes, if nothing else, to say that those of us who opposed this deal understood where it would lead.

And I fear that a passage of this deal will make it even harder for us to prevent it.

And I hope that there is still time to change our minds.

Iran may have a supreme leader, but America does not.

And soon we will have new leaders, perhaps in this chamber, but also in the executive branch.

And I pray that on their first day in office, they will reverse the steal and reimpose the sanctions and back them up with a credible threat of military force, or history will condemn us for not doing what needed to be done at this critical moment in the world's history.

Prior to this speech, then Senator Marco Rubio also delivered remarks on the floor of the US Senate urging passage of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review act of 2015.

I wanted to come to the floor today to speak about the risk that Iran poses to the world, and

as a result, the legislation that's before the Senate at this moment.

A lot has been talked about in the media over the last months, years, quite frankly, about the notion that we're going to work out a deal with Iran.

Sadly, I believe that the direction this deal is headed almost guarantees war at some point, certainly in our lifetime, but

Let me back up and first describe what the issue is at hand.

The issue at hand is that Iran, run by a radical Shia cleric, its government, I should say its people perhaps don't partake in this thought process, but

it's government, whose head and supreme decision maker is a radical Shia cleric, has made two decisions.

The first is they feel it is their obligation to export their Islamic revolution everywhere in the world.

And of course, it begins with the Middle East.

And two, they've decided they want to become the hegemonic power in the region.

They want to become the dominant nation, the dominant movement in the Middle east and in that entire region.

Well, first it requires you to drive the Americans out of the area, which is why we've seen them invest in all sorts of asymmetrical capabilities, like these little small swarm boats that they use to sometimes harass US Naval vessels.

That's why you see them just a week ago basically hijack a commercial vessel on international waters.

The second thing they do is they sponsor terrorism.

They have all these proxy groups and all these countries in the region that are doing their bidding.

It's using some non traditional method to expand their power or to show their power.

So they use these proxy groups like Hezbollah or now with the group, the Houthis that they're involved with in Yemen and in other parts of the world.

And the threat is that if you attack Iran, these terrorist groups will attack you.

And in fact, we have seen the hand of the Iranian government in terrorist attacks.

For example, we saw an attempt to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia here in Washington D.C.

we know that in 1994 there was a bombing in Buenos Aires that was linked to Iran.

But the third aspect of their desire to become the hegemonic regional power is, is a nuclear weapon.

What do you need to acquire a nuclear weapon?

The first thing you need is a bomb design.

And the truth is you can buy a bomb design.

The second thing you need is a delivery system, an ability to deliver the weapon, whether it's on an airplane or on a missile.

And that is why Iran is developing long range rockets.

They're expending a lot of money despite all the sanctions that are on them.

They're expending a lot of money to build these long range rockets, that isn't for some sort of fancy fireworks show.

They're building these long range rockets because they understand that is the second critical component of a nuclear weapons program.

And the third thing is you have to be able to get your hands on enriched uranium or reprocessed plutonium.

And no one in the world is going to import to them weapons grade uranium or plutonium.

So they've decided to build the infrastructure to do it themselves.

And they do it the way North Korea did it.

They do it the way other nations have done it.

When they try to hide their program, they do it by claiming that they have a peaceful nuclear program that they're trying to build.

In essence, their argument is, we don't want to build a weapon.

We're just trying to build nuclear reactors so we can provide electricity.

The first is this is an oil rich country.

They don't really need nuclear energy in order to provide cost effective energy for their country.

But the other is it costs so much money to build the equipment to enrich and reprocess.

They could just buy it already reprocessed or enriched, and