Marco Rubio, U.S. secretary of state, said that Washington’s economic pressure on the Islamic Republic has been so severe that this government has been greatly weakened and, under the current conditions, there is no longer any need for military action against it.

Rubio said: “Right now, I’ll be honest, the economic pressure that we’re putting on this government is so severe that there’s no need for a military action anymore, because we have severely weakened them.”

He added that despite this weakening, America’s ultimate goal should be to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The U.S. foreign minister added: “We have severely weakened them, but I think victory means making sure that they never have nuclear weapons, even if this definition might seem overly simple.”