Washington DC [USA], March 3 (ANI): Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US military operation against Iran was aimed at 'eliminating' the threat posed by Iran's short-range ballistic missiles and its naval capabilities, particularly regarding threats to global shipping.

Speaking to the press on Capitol Hill on Monday (local time), Rubio made it clear that the primary goal of the operation was to neutralise Iran's ballistic missile and naval threats.

'That is the clear objective of this mission,' Rubio said and added that the focus was on preventing a potential threat to the US and its allies.

'Our mission and our focus is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and their ability to manufacture them, as well as the threat posed by their Navy to global shipping,' he said.

The Secretary of State also said that they knew Iran would retaliate to military action.

'The imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked,... they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded,' Rubio explained.

Further speaking on preemptive action, Rubio said, '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 added that a delay in responding would result in 'much higher casualties.'

Rubio also stated that allowing Iran to continue developing its short-range ballistic missiles was an 'unacceptable risk' and insisted that the military operation had to take place while Tehran was at its 'weakest point.'

He reiterated the US's stance on Iran, saying, 'Our mission and our focus is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and their ability to manufacture them, as well as the threat posed by their Navy to global shipping.'

'The United States would not deliberately target a school. Our objectives are missiles, both the ability to manufacture them and the ability to launch them, and the one-way attractor. That would be our focus. We would have no interest in targeting civilian infrastructure. The Iranians are, on the other hand, targeting civilian infrastructure. They are deliberately targeting civilians because they are a terroristic regime. They sponsor terrorism, and they participate in terrorism,' he added.

He also expressed support for a potential regime change in Iran. 'We hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country.'

However, he stressed that the immediate goal was to ensure that Iran no longer had the weapons that could threaten the US and its regional allies. 'We would love to see this regime be replaced... The objective of this mission is to make sure they don't have these weapons that can threaten us and our allies in the region,' Rubio added.

On February 28, the US and Israeli in coordinated airstrikes across multiple Iranian cities, targeting military command centres, air-defence systems, missile sites, and key regime infrastructure. These strikes resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and four senior military and security officials, with large explosions reported in Tehran and other major cities.

In response, Iran also retaliated by launching ballistic missiles and drones at US assets and allies across the region, including Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, further widening the conflict in the Middle East and heightening risks for civilians and expatriates alike. (ANI)