Media: Rubio secretly briefed Congressmen on Iran before Trump's SOTU address

On February 24, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a rare briefing to top US lawmakers on Iran, just a few hours before President Donald Trump used his State of the Union (SOTU) address to say that the US would never allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.

Rubio delivered a classified briefing to the so-called “gang of eight”, which includes the senior lawmakers from both parties in the House and Senate, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, Caliber.Az reports, citing The Guardian.

The select group is briefed by the White House on classified intelligence matters, which can include preparations for significant military action. Rubio last publicly briefed the group on 5 January, the day after the US launched its successful operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

The developments came after a second US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford – the largest such vessel in the world – arrived in the region. Analysts have said that the US is now in position to launch a strike against Iran if Donald Trump orders one.

The details of the report were classified and were not immediately made public. Exiting the briefing, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: “This is serious, and the administration has to make its case to the American people.”

Caliber.Az recalls that during his State of the Union speech on February 24 Trump demanded that Iran abandon its nuclear programme, abandon its production of ballistic missiles and cease its support for overseas proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. “They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas,” he said. “And they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.” “We are in negotiations with them,” he continued. “They want to make a deal. But we haven’t heard those secret words: we will never have a nuclear weapon.”

The next round of US-Iran talks are scheduled for February 27 in Geneva. Iran recently expressed its willingness for diplomacy. The Islamic Republic’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, said in an interview with NPR that Iran was “ready to reach an agreement as soon as possible.” “We want to do whatever’s necessary to make it happen,” he continued. But the negotiations would only concern Iran’s nuclear programme, he added, which is unlikely to satisfy the White House.

Trump last week said that Iran would either make a deal or the US would have to “take it a step further”, adding that “really bad things” would happen to Iran, adding a time limit of 10 days.

The US has also evacuated non-essential personnel from its embassy in Lebanon due to an assessment of the “threat environment.”

By Khagan Isayev