May 5 (UPI) -- Speaking to reporters in a White House press briefing Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Iran's leaders are "insane in the brain" and should not test President Donald Trump over the Strait of Hormuz. He did call on those leaders to negotiate an end to the war, however, which he said has moved on to a new stage.
"The time's come for Iran to make a sensible choice," Rubio said during the briefing, CBS News reported, "and it's not easily for them to do that, obviously, because they have a fracture in their own leadership system, and apart from that, I mean, the top people in that government are, to say the least, you know, they're insane in the brain."
Rubio was the first person to stand in for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave.
The secretary of state said that the stage of the Iran war that started with the U.S. and Israeli attacks in February - Operation Epic Fury -- is over, even as Iranian and U.S. forces have exchanged fire this week. He said the focus is now on Project Freedom, the effort to safeguard commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which he called a defensive operation even as tensions remain high.
