‘They choose destruction’: Top Republican makes bold prediction about U.S. military action against Iran
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is forecasting U.S. military action in the coming days against Iran, predicting the Islamic Republic will not take an off-ramp proffered by American negotiators including Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
Appearing on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., said: “I expect that No. 1, that diplomacy continues. You have Kushner, you have Witkoff meeting in Geneva trying to offer. Here’s the off-ramp. You have to end nuclear enrichment, you have to end ballistic-missile program, stop having the ayatollah kill your people, stop threatening the United States of America.
“I don’t think they’ll take that off-ramp. I think we end up using the capabilities of our two carrier battle groups that are in the region when that timeline hits to say the treat to America comes to an end. It’s destruction or diplomacy. It’s one or the other, and I think they choose destruction.”
Today on @SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo, Florida Congressman Brian Mast @BrianMastFL reacted to the breaking news of an armed man shot outside Mar-A-Lago earlier this morning. Congressman Mast also spoke about President Trump considering military strikes on Iran. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/Q5lGJ9gw2A
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) February 22, 2026
President Donald Trump has voiced a deadline of the first week in March for Iran to accept American terms, but Mast added: “I expect that Iran does not take the diplomatic off-ramp, and that it comes to a strike from the president to protect the homeland of the United States of America, which absolutely this is, against an imminent threat against the American people.
“I can give one example of Americans literally killed at the beginning of 2024, three American service members were killed by the hand of Iran while they were in Jordan. That’s one example. Continual attempts to fly drones to our merchant-marine fleet, drones to our Navy vessels. You name it, they are constantly threatening America. The president says no more, this comes to an end. He is always about protecting the homeland and about protecting our people, and this is no different.”
He recalled “Operation: Midnight Hammer” last June in which U.S. forces “obliterated” Iran’s underground nuclear sites.
“The president told Iran, ‘End your nuclear weapons program.’ They chose not to do it,” Mast explained. “He gave them a certain number of days. Israel closed the skies over Iran and America brought in the B-2 bombers capability only we had and destroyed that infrastructure. Obliterated it.”
“Iran is doing what they’re always trying to do. Any place that they can use one of their proxies – the Houthis, Hezbollah – arm them train them and then direct them to kill Americans, they will do it.
“If they can attack our merchant-marine fleet or our Navy vessels, they will do it. They constantly chant, as we’ve all become so numb to, they’ll say, ‘Death to America.’ But they want to kill Americans at an even higher rate with ballistic missiles, with nuclear weapons, and that’s not going to be allowed … on top of which again they’re killing and imprisoning tens of thousands of their own people.”
“It’s time, I think, one way or another, for this regime to come to a close,” Mast concluded.
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