Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Iran of Nazi U-boat tactics against commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and warned that radical Shia clerics make a real deal with Tehran nearly impossible.
In an interview with India’s News18, Rubio condemned the Iranian regime for openly targeting civilian vessels and sailors who have nothing to do with any war. He said the world has not seen this kind of assault on commercial shipping since the Second World War.
Breitbart News reported Rubio’s blunt assessment of both the attacks and the slim odds of diplomacy with the current leadership in Tehran.
Rubio put the comparison in plain terms.
"They are doing Nazi U-boat tactics. And that’s what the world should be rallying around and condemning."
He added that Iran is “openly, openly, saying: We are targeting commercial vessels; we are trying to kill sailors who have nothing to do with the war; we are trying to sink commercial ships.”
American forces intercept and destroy the overwhelming majority of the missiles and drones Iran launches every night. Still, Rubio noted, every now and then one gets through and strikes a ship, often in the engine room.
One such attack hit the container ship GFS Pride. The vessel caught fire and later sank while under tow. Fatalities included Indian sailors among the crews caught in the crossfire.
Despite the attacks, Rubio said commercial traffic and energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz have bounced back hard. He put the figure at 80 to 100 percent of pre-conflict levels.
“The amount of traffic and oil and energy flowing through there is on, it’s 80 to 100 percent equal to what it was before the conflict,” Rubio stated.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took a different line. He said Tuesday the waterway would remain formally closed unless Washington accepted Tehran’s conditions.
Rubio rejected that framing. The United States continues nightly defense of shipping while applying extraordinary economic pressure aimed at cutting off the oil revenues the regime uses for terrorism, missiles, drones, and proxy forces.
“Every single night, the United States defends shipping,” he said. “In the meantime, we’re going to continue putting extraordinary economic pressure on them.”
Those revenues, Rubio stressed, do not go to the Iranian people. “They use it to sponsor terrorism. They use it to make missiles and drones to try to sink commercial vessels.”
On the prospect of any agreement, Rubio offered no soft landing.
"Well, it’s tough to make a deal with the Iranian regime. Unfortunately, they don’t know how to make a deal, and they’re controlled by radical Shia clerics."
He clarified the point: “And I don’t mean Shia clerics; I mean radical Shia clerics who are driven by theology, very difficult to make a deal with them.”
That skepticism tracks Rubio’s longer record. He has previously warned that deals empowering the Iranian regime hand it the chance to threaten Israel and destabilize the region, a stance he underscored when he pushed back against critics who backed the earlier nuclear agreement.
Reuters reported Tuesday, citing senior Iranian officials, that Tehran was deliberately prolonging negotiations to deny President Trump a political victory ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Rubio did not rule out diplomacy. He simply insisted the attacks on civilian shipping must end while the pressure campaign continues.
His approach fits a consistent hard line. The same secretary who has moved to expel Iranian U.N. diplomats lingering past their welcome now calls out the regime’s tactics on the high seas.
Rubio’s message leaves little room for wishful thinking. A regime that fires on commercial sailors and hides behind theology is not a normal negotiating partner.
He has defended an America First foreign policy as simple common sense, and the Hormuz defense fits that pattern: protect the sea lanes, choke off the money for terror, and refuse to pretend radical clerics are ready for a real bargain.
Earlier episodes show the same clarity. Rubio has ordered Iranian diplomats out after talks went nowhere and kept the focus on results rather than process.
When Democrats once tried to smear a donor with Nazi associations, Rubio called the attack despicable and noted the real danger lay in policies that strengthened Tehran. He made the same pivot then that he makes now: stop the games and confront the actual threat from the Iranian regime, a point he drove home in comments covered by the Washington Examiner.
Today the ships still move under American protection. The missiles and drones still fly. And the clerics still hold the veto.
Rubio has also pressed partners to end conflicts that spill onto commercial routes, including cases where Ukraine hit ships carrying American oil, underscoring that freedom of navigation is non-negotiable.
The pattern is steady. Whether clearing out Iranian diplomats who overstayed or calling out U-boat-style attacks, Rubio treats the regime as it behaves, not as Western diplomats might wish it to be. After his Acropolis remarks on the West’s inheritance, the secretary continues to act as if American power exists to defend civilized order, not to manage its decline. That includes the order removing Iranian U.N. diplomats when talks produced nothing.
Tehran can keep launching and keep stalling. The United States can keep intercepting and keep the economic screws tight. Sailors trying to earn a living should not have to run a gantlet of missiles because radical clerics need a foreign enemy.
Pressure is the honest language this regime understands. Pretending otherwise only gets more ships hit and more sailors killed.