{"id":142601,"date":"2026-06-02T20:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/142601\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:34:14","slug":"iran-still-has-a-lot-of-drones-rubio-tells-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/142601\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran still has \u2018a lot\u2019 of drones, Rubio tells senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Rubio<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tSecretary of State Marco Rubio testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing in Washington, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (Eric Kayne\/Stars and Stripes)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers Tuesday that Iran retains \u201ca lot of drones\u201d after Operation Epic Fury though Tehran\u2019s drone-building capability has been eroded after U.S. and Israeli bombardment. <\/p>\n

Rubio acknowledged during an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the technology \u2014 relatively cheap and easy to produce \u2014 remains a global threat that is difficult to address. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pervasive problem around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cThe economics of it are something we have to solve for.\u201d <\/p>\n

Iran unleashed swarms of drones across the Middle East during the first days of the war, which began Feb. 28, largely targeting American military installations. U.S. Central Command said it hit two Iranian drones<\/a> threatening ships over the weekend. <\/p>\n

The U.S. and Iran have continued to exchange fire despite a ceasefire announced in April. Rubio said last month that Operation Epic Fury had ended and the U.S. was now in a \u201cdefensive\u201d operation in the region. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he touted the military\u2019s successful touted the degradation of Iran\u2019s military, saying the country\u2019s ability to build and fire missiles has been \u201csubstantially degraded\u201d and its navy has been wiped out.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday there is no Iranian navy \u2014 there is no such thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of Boston Whalers with machine guns on them but there is no Iranian navy. It lies at the bottom of the ocean.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rubio said U.S. military action has also \u201csubstantially eroded\u201d the \u201cconventional shield\u201d of missiles, drones and naval assets that Iran uses to protect its nuclear program. <\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has said its chief war aim is to eliminate Iran\u2019s capacity to develop a nuclear weapon, but Tehran remains in possession of a significant stockpile of highly enriched uranium. <\/p>\n

Negotiations on Iran\u2019s nuclear program could take months, Rubio said. The talks would be \u201chighly technical,\u201d and they would take place after Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and commits to not firing or charging tolls on ships, he said. <\/p>\n

An interim deal \u201ccould happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week,\u201d Rubio said, but there is no guarantee that it would be \u201cacceptable to the Senate or acceptable to the American people.\u201d <\/p>\n

The negotiating process is being complicated by the slow relay of information from Iranian negotiators, who take three to five days to deliver responses to U.S. proposals, he said. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, the U.S. military is continuing a naval blockade of Iranian ports<\/a> and seizing sanctioned ships in the Indo-Pacific. The actions cost Tehran \u201chundreds of millions\u201d in revenue per day, Rubio said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. will lift the blockade once Iran reopens the Strait, he said. Some 50,000 troops remain deployed in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing in Washington, on Tuesday, June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,2085,46698,46697,17432,15608],"class_list":["post-142601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-iran","tag-iran-drones","tag-rubio-senate-foreign-relations-committee","tag-rubio-senate-hearing-iran-drones","tag-secretary-of-state-marco-rubio","tag-us-war-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116682428548822813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}