US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Tuesday defended Washington's military posture toward Iran, arguing that Tehran had been attempting to build up conventional weapons capabilities as a "shield" to protect its nuclear programme.
Speaking before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said Iran’s military capabilities had been significantly weakened following recent US military actions and suggested that its conventional forces were no longer a credible deterrent.
"What they tried to do is they were going to try to build a conventional shield and hide behind that conventional shield," Rubio told lawmakers.
He further claimed that Iran’s naval strength had been severely degraded. "What’s left of Iran’s navy is a ‘bunch of Boston Whalers with machine guns on them,’" he said.
