Rubio says US still open to Iran negotiations but 'it has to be real'
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to target Iran’s power stations and bridges to try to compel Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, which saw one-fifth of traded global oil supplies transit before the war. Recent attacks suggest the U.S. military is carrying out that plan.
The U.S. in the past week reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. The military on Saturday said it had redirected six ships and disabled one since then.
The halfway point has passed in the 60 days the deal set out to negotiate the permanent end of the war and other issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. is still open to negotiating with Iran but that “it has to be real.”
“We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy — if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system, or take control of the negotiations — that’ll be a very positive development,” Rubio said. “That’s not where we are tonight, unfortunately.”
Mohammad Javad Zarif, a former Iranian foreign minister who helped elect the country's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, acknowledged in an essay published Monday by Foreign Policy that “the deal could never survive such dissonance” over the Strait of Hormuz.
“As the current conflict makes clear, Washington cannot eliminate the Iranian government,” Zarif wrote. “Only diplomacy, a new peace agreement, and a new security framework produced by regional states and for regional states will allow the United States to turn its attention elsewhere.”
However, Zarif did warn the country's theocracy that “if Iran repeatedly threatens maritime traffic, it could turn much of the world against it.”
Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of U.S. strikes. Since the war began on Feb. 28, 17 U.S. service members have been killed.
Source: Associated Press
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