The U.S. Secretary of State, emphasizing that the ultimate goal of the military operation against the Islamic Republic is to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons, said that the Iranian government will face, in the coming weeks, mounting economic pressure and what he called “the most disastrous economic crisis in the history of modern Iran.”

In an exclusive interview with the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Marco Rubio said: “They will face the most disastrous economic crisis in the history of modern Iran, and all of this will be the fault of the ultra-extremist Shiite clerics who run that country.”

He added that “in the current circumstances,” the straits are open and the Iranian government does not have control over them. Rubio said: “Oil shipments via the southern route, which we have cleared of mines, have now reached roughly 80 percent of the level prior to the conflict.”

Rubio said the oil that the Iranian government has exported during the period of the agreement with the United States is now in the Pacific Ocean and that the country is “on the verge of selling its last barrels.”