Secretary Marco Rubio advised to Fox Information in an interview on Monday that Iran’s peace proposal falls wanting the U.S. situations for ending the conflict, now getting into its third month.
Two officers accustomed to the matter instructed ABC Information that the Iranian proposal consists of a loosening of Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz in alternate for the lifting of the U.S. blockade. Talks on Iran’s nuclear program would then be pushed again to an unspecified future date, Tehran’s proposal advised.
Rubio, although, stated the nuclear problem was on the coronary heart of the U.S. place. “The nuclear query is the explanation why we’re on this within the first place,” Rubio stated.
Iranian worshippers carry out Friday prayers underneath the portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and prime navy officers who had been killed throughout the U.S.-Israel marketing campaign, on the Tehran College in Tehran, April 24, 2026.
Vahid Salemi/AP
Rubio additionally stated the U.S. wouldn’t permit Tehran to retain management over the Strait of Hormuz, or to proceed to cost tolls to delivery passing by.
“These are worldwide waterways. They can not normalize, nor can we tolerate them attempting to normalize, a system during which the Iranians determine who will get to make use of a world waterway and the way a lot it’s a must to pay them to make use of it,” he stated.
Rubio underscored U.S. issues in regards to the regime’s means to conform to a deal and the standing of recent Supreme Chief Mojtaba Khamenei.
“One of many impediments right here is that our negotiators aren’t simply negotiating with Iranians. These Iranians then have to barter with different Iranians with a purpose to work out what they will conform to, what they will provide, what they’re prepared to do, even who they’re prepared to fulfill with,” Rubio stated.
Requested whether or not he believed Mojtaba Khamenei was nonetheless alive, Rubio replied, “Now we have indications that he’s. Clearly they declare that he’s. We do not have proof that he isn’t.”
“I believe the query between alive and in energy are two completely different questions. You may be alive — however I believe the unresolved questions listed here are does he have the identical credibility as his father did,” Rubio stated.
Rubio additionally advised that the Iranian proposal could not have the backing of all factions jostling for affect in Tehran. “I believe there are nonetheless questions on whether or not the individual submitting it had the authority to submit that provide,” he stated.
Nonetheless, Rubio stated he believed the Iranians “are severe about getting themselves out of the mess that they are in.”
-ABC Information’ Shannon Okay. Kingston
