Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back on Tuesday when a reporter asked whether a stalemate in the war with Iran benefits the United States, saying sanctions and the blockade are crushing the Iranian economy.
Rubio was answering questions from reporters in Paris, where foreign ministers from the G7 countries were meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The reporter came back to Iran and asked: “Why is a stalemate on the Iran war beneficial to the United States?”
The Paris session was a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries. Rubio took questions from reporters there, and a reporter pressed him on Iran.
“It’s not a stalemate. You call it a stalemate,” Rubio said. “I know it’s not a stalemate. How is it a stalemate?”
He argued that the pressure campaign is doing deep damage. “The United States is imposing extraordinary damaging effects through our sanctions and other measures in the blockade on the Iranian economy that every month continues to collapse.”
“I don’t know how that’s a stalemate,” he added. “They’re bleeding. They’re bleeding economically.”
The word stalemate suggests neither side is gaining ground. Rubio’s answer rested on the opposite claim: that Iran’s economy gets weaker every month under sanctions and the blockade, so in his telling the United States is the side gaining ground. His measure was economic: an economy that continues to collapse, in his words, is not a stalemate.
The clip above runs about 22 seconds. It comes from Rubio’s question and answer session with reporters at the G7 meeting in Paris.
Video: Fox News
