Rubio: Iran, not Palestinian issue, main obstacle to Mideast peace

(Oct. 19, 2026 / JNS)

Iran, rather than the Palestinian issue, is the principal obstacle to peace in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, arguing that the Trump administration has exposed Tehran’s central role in regional instability.

“Traditionally, the American political class thought that peace in the Middle East, the core central issue, is the Palestinian question,” Rubio told the Breitbart news site in his first in-person interview since his public address at the Acropolis in Athens.

But “the number one driver of instability and war and conflict and the number one obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the Islamic regime in Tehran,” he continued.

Rubio cited Iran’s support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, terrorist militias in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as Tehran’s direct attacks on regional countries.

The Islamic Republic “is the only country in the region that has launched not simply proxy attacks, but direct attacks against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan. I’m probably leaving somebody out. ... Direct attacks, in addition to what their proxies have done,” Rubio said.

“If there were no Islamic clerics, these radical Shia clerics in Iran—if they didn’t exist, if that wasn’t there—none of these problems would exist,” he said.

While acknowledging that the Palestinian issue might still persist, he said that resolving it would be easier without the Iranian regime. “They are the central problem in that region,” the secretary of state said.

Iranian FM warns Iran has unfinished business

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Sunday that Tehran has “unfinished jobs” of its own, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to “finish the job” against the Islamic Republic.

“Want to try your luck again? Be our guest. But be careful; we have unfinished jobs too,” Araghchi wrote on X, claiming his country had emerged stronger from the previous round of violence with Israel and the United States.

He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pushing Washington toward another war “to stay out of jail, whatever the consequences for Israel—let alone POTUS.”

In a Truth Social post on Sunday endorsing Netanyahu for prime minister, Trump warned that unless Tehran rapidly changes course, “we will soon finish the job.”

He then explicitly tied continued cooperation against the Islamic Republic to Netanyahu’s political survival: “If Israel has the wrong leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so,” he wrote.

Trump praised Netanyahu, describing him as a “Great Warrior Prime Minister” and partner against Tehran.

Following Trump’s remarks, Netanyahu urged voters to heed the U.S. president’s endorsement, saying their partnership was essential to completing the campaign against Iran.

“Trump said we did wonderful things together. We crushed Iran, we crushed the Iranian axis, and we pushed back the immediate threat of nuclear weapons against us,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

The premier added that work remained and said Trump had pledged to complete it with him personally.

“The president says he will do it, and that he will do it only if the two of us do it together,” Netanyahu said. “Therefore, I ask you: Listen to him, consider his words and vote for me.”

Netanyahu called Iran the central issue in Israel’s Oct. 27 election, arguing that the country’s very existence was at stake.

IRGC threatens to turn Israel into ‘scorched earth’

On Monday, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened that any attack on the country’s energy infrastructure would turn Israel into “scorched earth,” according to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.

Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebi said such an attack would turn “the occupied territories,” referring to the entirety of the Jewish state, into “scorched earth forever.”

He threatened that it would also turn the “usurpers,” i.e. Israelis, into “wanderers in the Sinai desert.”

Mohebi claimed that “our young scientists” would immediately repair any damage to Iran’s energy infrastructure.

“The world will see what will happen!” he said.

The threat comes amid U.S. diplomatic missions in 12 Middle Eastern countries issuing security alerts on Sunday, and urging Americans to “exercise heightened vigilance” over threats from Iran and its proxies and the risk of escalating Houthi attacks.

The alerts were issued for Israel, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The warnings said recent Houthi attacks on Saudi civilian airports and critical infrastructure could escalate beyond the kingdom. They also cautioned that Iran and Iran-aligned groups may target U.S. interests worldwide and advised Americans to prepare for possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and other travel disruptions.

Netanyahu: Iranian threat will cease when regime is toppled

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said that ending the Iranian threat ultimately will require toppling the regime in Tehran, in an interview with Fox News‘s Mark Levin that aired on Saturday.

“Let’s complete the job and have the people of Iran seize their own future,” Netanyahu said, praising Trump’s military and economic pressure on Tehran.

“The only way you can deal with it is to basically get rid of this regime,” the prime minister said, describing this as a long process involving military and economic measures.

Netanyahu told Levin that his goals for the final two years of Trump’s term are to eliminate the Iranian threat, expand the Abraham Accords and harness the power of artificial intelligence.