[Video below.] Condoleezza Rice is calling on President Trump to finish the job against Iran following the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign that eliminated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Speaking on Fox News this week, the former secretary of state voiced strong support for the operation — known as Operation Epic Fury — and said Washington should seize the opportunity to neutralize Iran’s military threat permanently.

Appearing Wednesday on Fox News’ “Special Report,” Rice argued that Iran has been hostile to the United States for decades and that the current conflict must be understood in that broader context.

“Iran has been at war with us for at least 47 years,” Rice said during the interview. “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, 71, said the purpose of the strikes was to cripple Iran’s ability to retaliate and to weaken the regime’s military capabilities before it could respond.

“If you can render Iran essentially incapable of military action against us and against our allies, that’s worthy, and I think what they’re trying to do is to neuter Iran as a military power in the region,” she said.

Rice, who served as the nation’s top diplomat during President George W. Bush’s second term, also pointed to Iran’s longstanding strategy of cultivating proxy militias across the Middle East that operate on Tehran’s behalf.

“They also have developed the military capability to reach outside the boundaries of Iran, including Hezbollah and Hamas, which they both arm and equip,” Rice said.

She dismissed arguments suggesting the Iranian government posed little danger to the United States or its allies, calling such claims historically inaccurate.

“To say that this regime was not a threat … it’s ahistorical,” Rice said. “They have been a threat for a long time.”

Rice also cited several past attacks tied to Iran, including the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran and the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American troops, as evidence of the regime’s long record of hostility toward the United States.

“I myself negotiated four Security Council resolutions, calling them a threat to international peace and security,” Rice said. “Because of their nuclear ambitions.”

Before the weekend military operation began, the United States had been engaged in diplomatic talks with Tehran even as Iran insisted it possessed what it called an “inalienable right” to continue enriching uranium.

Trump had insisted that Iran fully halt its nuclear enrichment program, but negotiations stalled during meetings in Geneva while Washington simultaneously increased its military deployments throughout the Middle East.

Since the start of the strikes, Iran has responded with attacks targeting American and Israeli interests across the region. Those retaliatory actions have left six U.S. service members dead. Rice characterized Tehran’s decision to attack nearby Gulf states as a serious strategic error.

Rice also addressed reports suggesting the United States may have provided support to insurgent groups in Iraq for potential ground operations against the Iranian regime.

“The one thing I don’t know is the nature of the reports hearing about Kurdish incursions into Iranian territory and we ought to be circumspect about judgments and what that really means in terms of Kurdish activity,” she said. “It does speak to the complicated demographics of Iran and we have to keep that in mind.”

She emphasized that Iran is a diverse society composed of numerous ethnic minorities that have faced repression under the ruling regime.

“We do have to be aware that Iran is not a homogeneous population, it’s also a population of over 90 million people on territory that’s twice the size of Texas. So it’s gonna be a complicated set of circumstances,” she added.

Rice also framed the current confrontation with Iran as part of a chain of events stretching back to the Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which were carried out with Iranian backing.

“Iran demonstrated that it probably wasn’t possible to deter their tentacles-like Hamas. I’m quite certain that October 7 with Hamas couldn’t have happened without Iranian training and equipment and even maybe planning,” Rice said.

In the weeks leading up to Operation Epic Fury, U.S. forces carried out a separate campaign in June known as Operation Midnight Hammer, striking multiple Iranian nuclear installations.

“The administration decided, along with the Israelis, to try and at least degrade and maybe even seriously set back Iranian nuclear capabilities.”

Rice said the moment presented a rare opportunity because Iran appeared temporarily weakened and unable to mount an immediate defense.

“I see it as a series of decisions and worthy goal. Of course, we’ll have to watch and see, but I do think taking care of Iranian military and nuclear capabilities is very important,” she said.

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{Matzav.com}