US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the main US quarrel with Tehran is how it treats its people, on top of its opposition to Tehran's nuclear programs and regional ambitions.
"In the case of some of these executions," Rubio told reporters at a State Department press conference when asked about reports by human rights organizations that Iran has had the highest number of executions in 2025.
"Some of them, by the way, were in the aftermath of the war with Israel, where they went through and have jailed people and accused people of being informants and spies."
"Our problem with the Iranian regime isn't simply – I mean, obviously, it's predominantly their desire to acquire nuclear weapons, their sponsorship of terrorism – but it's ultimately the treatment of their own people," Rubio said.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and a standoff between Tehran and Washington over the future of its uranium enrichment has precluded any renewed talks since a 12-day war launched by Israel and the United States in June.
Tehran rejects US demands to stop enrichment, curb its missile arsenal and end support armed allies in the Middle East like Hezbollah and Hamas.
Under Rubio, the state department has ramped up its criticism of Iran's human rights records in frequent social media posts, most recently branding as suspicious the sudden death of a human rights lawyer whom Tehran said died of a heart attack.
Earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammedi was arrested at a memorial service for the man, Khosrow Alikordi, along with dozens of other activists in one of the more prominent anti-government protests against authorities since a June war.
Economic and ecological problems have also beset the country as US and international sanctions ramped up after the war.
"You've got a clerical, radical regime that has driven and taken the wealth of that country and used it not to enrich their – secure their people and their future, not to make sure they have enough water and electricity," Rubio added.
"They've used their money to sponsor terrorist organizations all over the world."
Tehran says it oversees a regional axis of Resistance opposed to Israel and the United States, but its sway is diminished after two years of regional combat in which Iran itself and its allies took heavy blows.
