Rubio’s message from the past- comes eerily true

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A Lone Warning That Echoed Through History

Eleven years ago, in the summer of 2015, the world watched as jubilant crowds in Iran danced in the streets celebrating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, the deal’s chief architect, emerged as a national hero and global symbol of pragmatic diplomacy, while U.S. President Barack Obama was hailed as a peacemaker. Meanwhile, a then-young Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) stood largely alone in fierce opposition, warning of grave dangers ahead.

Zarif: The Architect of the Deal

Zarif served as Iran’s Foreign Minister from 2013 to 2021 under President Hassan Rouhani, masterfully negotiating the JCPOA, which imposed strict limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

After stepping down in 2021, he shifted to academia as an associate professor of global studies at the University of Tehran. He briefly returned to high office in mid-2024 as Vice President for Strategic Affairs under President Masoud Pezeshkian, resigning in March 2025 amid hardliner pressures and economic strains. As of early 2026, Zarif remains influential in public discourse through writings and commentary.

Rubio’s Prophetic Senate Floor Speech

But on September 10, 2015—days before Senate Democrats blocked a vote to derail the deal—Rubio rose on the Senate floor amid a departing crowd to deliver a stark, prescient warning. Addressing the implications of the agreement Zarif had helped craft, he declared:

“I’m saying this so it gets recorded in history”

“You wrote the JCPOA. It’s done. But I’m only saying this so it gets recorded in history: The Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime has an apocalyptic, end-of-times view of the world. If he ever gets his hands on a nuclear bomb, it’s no longer clear in what kind of world our children will live… But I have good news for you. Iran may have a permanent Supreme Leader; but America does not… Very soon a new administration will come to power. And I pray that that administration not only cancels the JCPOA, but also stops Iran from going nuclear through military threat. Otherwise, history will hold us accountable.”

Rubio’s words captured the hardline Republican critique: the deal was too lenient, failing to curb Iran’s ballistic missiles, regional proxies, or ideological drive, while empowering a regime whose Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, viewed the world through a radical Shia eschatological lens—one potentially willing to risk catastrophe to hasten apocalyptic events.

Vindicated by Events

History has vindicated Rubio’s prescience. In 2018, President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, reimposed “maximum pressure” sanctions, and Rubio—now Secretary of State in 2026—has championed that approach ever since.

Tensions escalated dramatically with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in 2025, nationwide protests in Iran met with brutal crackdowns, and renewed threats of force.

Today’s Reality: Negotiating with Rubio’s America

Today, as indirect U.S.-Iran talks resume in Oman—mediated amid deep mistrust and U.S. demands extending beyond the nuclear file to missiles, proxies, and human rights—Iran’s current Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sits across from American representatives. Tomorrow’s negotiations unfold not with the hopeful Obama-era America that celebrated the JCPOA, but with Marco Rubio’s America: a resolute, skeptical power backed by military leverage, unwilling to repeat past concessions.

Tomorrow, Abbas Araghchi’s negotiations with America begin. With which America? With Marco Rubio’s America…