Iran regime change was not objective, says Marco Rubio - ‘But no complaints about Khamenei being killed’

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill that the objective of the strikes on Iran was not regime change. The statement comes a few days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israel joint airstrikes at his residence-office compound on Saturday, March 1.

Speaking with reporters, Marco Rubio said while the objective was not a regime change in Iran, the main purpose of the strikes was ending Tehran's missile and nuclear programs.

Iran has long insisted that it didn’t want to build a nuclear bomb. While its ballistic missiles are capable of hitting US forces in the region as well as American allies, it didn’t have the capability to target the US directly.

The Secretary of State said, “The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can’t rebuild, and make sure that they can’t hide behind that to have a nuclear program." However, Rubio said there were no objections to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei being killed.

Asserting that a new regime in Iran would be welcomed by the United States, Marco Rubio said, “We would love for there to be an Iran that’s not governed by radical Shia clerics. While we would love to see a new regime, the bottom line is — no matter who governs that country a year from now, they’re not going to have these ballistic missiles and they’re not going to have these drones to threaten us."

He also warned that the hardest of strikes are yet to come.

“I’m not going to give away the details of our tactical efforts, but the hardest hits are yet to come from the US military,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill. “The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now."

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them, before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” he said.

“We believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow.”

Donald Trump had, however, earlier said that he decided to launch attack on Iran after the negotiations ended in Geneva on Thursday, March 26, without a deal.

(With inputs from agencies)