Marco Rubio

Armies fight for a nation.

Armies fight for a way of life.

The United Nations still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world.

But we cannot ignore that today on the most pressing matters before us, it has no answers and has played virtually no role

It could not solve the war in Gaza.

Instead, it was American leadership that freed captives from barbarians and brought about a fragile truce.

It has not solved the war in Ukraine.

It took American leadership in partnership with many of the countries here today just to bring the two sides to the table in search of a still elusive peace.

It was powerless to constrain the nuclear program of radical Shia clerics in Tehran.

That required 14 bombs dropped with precision from American B2 bombers.

And it was unable to address the threat to our security from a narco-terrorist dictator in Venezuela.

Instead, it took American special forces to bring this fugitive to justice.

I think it's pretty clear that Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, that that poses a threat not just to the United States, to Europe, to world security and to the region.

There's no doubt about it.

The second is we obviously want to have forces in the region because Iran has shown the willingness and the capability to lash and strike out at the United States presence in the region.

You know, we have bases because of our alliances in the region.

And Iran has shown in the past that they're willing to attack us and or threaten our bases.

So we have to have sufficient firepower in the region to ensure that they don't make a mistake and come after us and trigger something

larger.

I think if there's an opportunity here to diplomatically reach an agreement that addresses the things we're concerned about, we would be very open and welcoming to that.