Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that Washington had weakened Iran enough to avoid further military strikes for now, arguing that continued economic pressure could force Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions despite the financial and political costs of the war.

Speaking during a question-and-answer session following his keynote address at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention in Washington, Rubio characterized Iran’s leadership as a radical Shiite clerical class driven by revolutionary ideology rather than the interests of a conventional government.

“These people are revolutionaries,” Rubio said, arguing that the regime’s ideology made preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons a critical U.S. national security priority.

Rubio said the military campaign had substantially weakened Iran, allowing the administration to maintain pressure through economic measures rather than resume major combat operations.

“There’s no need for military action because we’ve weakened them so much,” Rubio said, adding that “victory is ensuring that they never have a nuclear weapon.”

Rubio acknowledged that the war had imposed economic costs on Americans, including higher energy prices, but argued that President Donald Trump had chosen to confront the threat rather than leave it for a future administration. His comments came after Vice President JD Vance blamed the war for contributing to Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses, while Trump has maintained that he would make the same decision again.

Rubio also delivered a forceful attack on the International Criminal Court, describing it as a “fake and illegitimate” institution and accusing international legal bodies of attempting to constrain American sovereignty under the guise of enforcing universal principles.

“For this global elite, international law is not a neutral body of rules,” Rubio said, arguing that international legal institutions have become instruments for advancing political agendas rather than administering impartial justice.

Defending the Trump administration’s sanctions against the ICC, Rubio warned against attempts to assert jurisdiction over American citizens despite the United States not being a party to the court’s founding treaty.

“If they’re foolish enough to try to enforce their paper decrees on Americans,” Rubio said, Washington’s response would echo a line attributed to the Roman general Pompey: “Stop quoting laws to the men with swords.”

The remarks build on Rubio’s warnings earlier this week that Washington could inflict further damage on the court unless it changes course. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, despite Israel not being a party to the court’s founding treaty.