ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The US's objective in its war on Iran is to destroy the Islamic republic's missile-launching capacity by targeting its infrastructure, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, accusing Tehran of conducting "terrorism using nation-state elements."

"The goals of this mission are clear ... It is to destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles, both by destroying their missiles and their launchers, destroy the factories that make these missiles, and destroy their navy," Rubio said in a speech at a flag-raising for US Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day in Washington.

Rubio said that "the threat that this clerical [Iranian] regime poses to the region" is now seen, "they are trying to hold the world hostage ... They are attacking neighboring countries, their energy infrastructure, their civilian population." 

A US-Israeli campaign targeting the Iranian government's leadership and structural institutions in late February, which saw the assassination of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has thrown the Middle East into turmoil, as Iran has targeted what it dubs US interests in several regional countries in retaliation. 

Among the countries caught in the crossfire are Iraq, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Oman, though Tehran has denied involvement in the attacks on some of the countries mentioned. Israel and the US, meanwhile, have targeted Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.

"They're attacking embassies. This is a terrorist government. This is a terroristic regime," Rubio said, alleging that the Islamic Republic is conducting "terrorism using nation-state elements, using weapons like missiles and one-way attack drones," reiterating that the US-Israeli mission's objective is to "destroy their ability to continue to do that." 

Iran has funded and propped up several proxies across the Middle East, many of which have been designated as terrorist organizations by the US. Tehran has been linked to former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime, as well as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and a myriad armed factions in Iraq. 

The Islamic republic has long been viewed as an "existential threat" by Israeli officials, owing to its hardline anti-Israel stance on the Israeli-Palestine conflict.