Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged President Donald Trump to "take care of Iran for good," praising "Operation Epic Fury," which resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Rice served as secretary of state during President George W. Bush's second term.
She said in a TV interview that the Iranian regime has been hostile toward the United States for decades and argued that the latest military operation is part of a long-overdue effort to neutralize one of America’s most persistent adversaries.
"Iran has been at war with us for at least 47 years," Rice said, the New York Post reported. "If you ask people about Iraq, what was the source of many of our casualties in Iraq, you’ll get estimates as high as 75% or 80% of them were due to Iranian-made roadside bombs."
Rice said the goal of the military campaign should be to severely weaken Iran’s ability to threaten the United States, Israel, and other allies in the Middle East.
"If you can render Iran essentially incapable of military action against us and against our allies, that’s worthy," she said on Fox News Channel. "What they’re trying to do is to neuter Iran as a military power in the region."
Rice noted that Tehran has spent decades building a network of terrorist proxy forces across the Middle East.
"They have developed the military capability to reach outside the boundaries of Iran, including Hezbollah and Hamas, which they both arm and equip," Rice said. "To say that this regime was not a threat … it’s ahistorical."
She pointed to the regime’s long history of violence against Americans, including the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis and the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members.
"I myself negotiated four Security Council resolutions calling them a threat to international peace and security because of their nuclear ambitions," Rice said.
The latest U.S.-Israeli military operations came after negotiations between Washington and Tehran collapsed over Iran’s refusal to abandon uranium enrichment.
The Trump administration had demanded that the regime give up its nuclear program entirely, but talks broke down as the U.S. built up military assets in the region.
Since the launch of Operation Epic Fury, Iran has fired retaliatory strikes against U.S. and Israeli targets in the Middle East, killing six American service members.
Rice called Tehran’s retaliation a strategic mistake.
"I see it as a series of decisions and a worthy goal," she said of the military campaign. "Taking care of Iranian military and nuclear capabilities is very important."
She also cautioned that Iran's internal dynamics — including ethnic and political divisions within the country’s population of more than 90 million — could complicate any future developments following the regime’s weakening.
Military pressure on Tehran has intensified in recent months following earlier U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
According to U.S. officials, those attacks significantly damaged Iran's nuclear infrastructure and set back its weapons program.
Rice said the broader effort to degrade Iran’s military power could ultimately help stabilize the Middle East.
"This really is a now-crippled Iran," she said, arguing that weakening the regime is "good for the region" and a necessary step toward preventing further terrorism and nuclear escalation.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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