‘When It Comes to a Country Like Iran, They Cannot Do a Damn Thing’

Meeting in Jerusalem on February 16, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed their determination to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Rubio said that “there never will be a nuclear Iran,” while Netanyahu noted that Israel had dealt a “mighty blow” to Iran since the war in Gaza started and declared that with President Trump’s support, “I have no doubt we can and will finish the job.” In response, an Iranian government spokesman said on Monday that the US and Israel could not “do a damn thing” to hurt Iran. In fact, Iran has never been as vulnerable to attack since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979. More on Iran’s hollow bravado — akin to the frog that puffs itself up to ward off predators — can be found here: “Iran Says Israel, US ‘Cannot Do a Damn Thing’ Against Tehran,” Algemeiner, February 17, 2025:

Iran said on Monday that US and Israeli threats against it were a blatant violation of international law and that they could not “do a damn thing” to hurt Tehran.

The comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Sunday and said their countries were determined to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its influence in the Middle East.

Netanyahu said Israel had dealt a “mighty blow” to Iran since the start of the war in Gaza and that with the support of US President Donald Trump “I have no doubt we can and will finish the job.”

The “mighty blow” that Israel has dealt Iran consisted of two distinct achievements. First, the IDF has decimated all three of Iran’s most important proxies. It has nearly dismantled Hamas as a fighting force in Gaza, killing at least 20,000 of its combatants, destroying most of its 450-mile long tunnel system, and reducing its missile arsenal by two-thirds. In Lebanon, the IDF has killed 3,800 Hezbollah fighters, wounded another 7,000, including those who were seriously wounded by the “exploding pagers,” and reduced Hezbollah’s arsenal of rockets and missiles by 80%. In addition, the IDF has managed to destroy most of the arms in Syria that were left virtually unprotected by that country’s military after Bashar Assad fled the country, and the army disintegrated, with soldiers tearing off their uniforms to avoid being killed by the triumphant rebels.

Israel dealt its second tremendous blow to Iran place on October 26, when Israeli jets flew into Iran and destroyed almost all of that country’s anti-missile systems, including the four S-300 batteries that protected Tehran. Now Iran is wide open to aerial attack. The Israelis also destroyed the plant where fuel for ballistic missiles was manufactured. And in the same raid, the Israelis destroyed a secret nuclear research facility at Parchin.

After that devastating raid, the Iranians promised that they would respond with a terrible revenge. Four months have passed since then, and not a single missile or rocket has been fired by Iran at Israeli targets.

Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei responded: “When it comes to a country like Iran, they cannot do a damn thing.”…

“You cannot do a damn thing”? But look at what Israel did in the past sixteen months to Iran’s main allies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Syrian army — and on October 26, to Iran itself. A great deal more than “a damn thing.”

And look, too, at the effect of America’s sanctions on Iran, that Trump imposed in his first term and has just reimposed in his second — sanctions that have brought that country’s economy to its knees. That has been much more than a “damn thing.”

In 2018, Trump pulled the US out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.

A year later, Iran reacted by breaching the pact’s nuclear curbs, accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent of weapons grade. It says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes….

Over the 16 months since the Gaza war erupted, Israel has assassinated leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and Israel and Iran have carried out limited attacks against each other.

It is not just that Israel has assassinated leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah. It has decimated that leadership. Those killed include Hamas’ military leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and the head of its political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, assassinated in a guest house in Tehran, as well as dozens of commanders and 20,000 combatants. Those in Hezbollah killed by the IDF include the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, his successor Hashem Safieddine, the commander and deputy commander of the Radwan Force, an elite unit, dozens of the group’s commanders, and 3,800 of its fighters. Another 7,000 were wounded, many of them seriously, by the “exploding pagers.”

The Iranians have been issuing dire warnings to Israel and the United States, insisting they “cannot do a damn thing” against Iran. They are hoping, like the frog that puffs itself up to ward off predators, that such warnings may prevent attacks from both the Little and the Big Satan. Neither, however, appears to be the least bit impressed, not least because four months have passed and Iran has still not made good on its promise to retaliate for Israel’s attack on October 26.