{"id":73468,"date":"2026-01-28T18:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/2026\/01\/28\/not-an-act-of-war-marco-rubio-defends-venezuela-operation-at-senate-hearing-what-he-said\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:36:15","slug":"not-an-act-of-war-marco-rubio-defends-venezuela-operation-at-senate-hearing-what-he-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/2026\/01\/28\/not-an-act-of-war-marco-rubio-defends-venezuela-operation-at-senate-hearing-what-he-said\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not an act of war\u2019: Marco Rubio defends Venezuela operation at Senate hearing \u2014 what he said"},"content":{"rendered":"


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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, defending the Trump administration\u2019s recent military actions in Venezuela and explaining the US posture on Iran.Rubio said the US operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was not an act of war and stressed that Washington does not plan further military action in the country. \u201cWe are not postured and do not expect to take military action,\u201d he told lawmakers, adding that additional strikes could harm long-term efforts to stabilise Venezuela and support a democratic transition.He also addressed Iran, saying there is no current plan to attack the country, even as the US increases its military presence in the Middle East. Rubio described the buildup as \u201cwise and prudent\u201d to protect American personnel and facilities from potential Iranian threats. His comments came as President Donald Trump again warned Tehran of a \u201cfar worse\u201d attack if it does not abandon its nuclear ambitions.Rubio cautioned that regime change in Iran would be \u201cfar more complex\u201d than in Venezuela, noting the longevity of Iran\u2019s leadership and the need for careful consideration.The hearing also touched on Ukraine, with Rubio saying disagreements over territory remain a key obstacle in talks involving the US, Russia and Ukraine. He said Washington may need to provide a \u201csecurity backstop\u201d for any future agreement.Rubio further said the Trump administration would like to see a change in Cuba\u2019s government but stopped short of saying the US would force such an outcome.“We would like to see that regime change, Rubio said, adding, “That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make a change, but we would love to see it change.” <\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, defending the Trump administration\u2019s recent military actions in Venezuela and explaining the US posture on…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/the-latest_-rubio-walks-back-military-action-in-venezuela-but-defends-us-presence-near-iran.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}