Rubio Calls Iran Talks Positive but Rules Out Any Major Breakthrough
Marco Rubio said talks with Iran were positive but not a major breakthrough, and accused Tehran of violating a memorandum of understanding.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described the latest round of contacts with Iran as positive, while cautioning that the exchanges did not amount to a major breakthrough.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Rubio declined to give a detailed account of the discussions, saying Washington does not find it constructive to provide a blow-by-blow account of such meetings. He said the talks were largely a continuation of conversations held in the past and that the United States remains open to exchanging ideas and messages with almost anyone to address conflicts, crises or disagreements.
"It was positive in that regard," he said, adding that he did not want to mischaracterise the engagement as a major breakthrough but considered it significant that a conversation had taken place at all.
The comments followed a meeting a day earlier between President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Iranian officials on the margins of the annual gathering of world leaders. The meeting lasted about three hours.
Rubio also said Iran had violated a memorandum of understanding, which he said the Iranians had "killed" and "strangled" through that violation, naming the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He said Tehran faces a choice: a prosperous future not at war with its neighbours, or a continued path that would bring extraordinary economic and potentially military repercussions. He described that decision as one for the president.
On the nuclear question, Rubio said any outcome must go beyond the destruction of facilities and include a long-term, enforceable commitment by Iran never to pursue a nuclear weapon. He said that as long as Iran is governed by its current leadership, its potential possession of nuclear arms is an unacceptable risk to the world.
He noted that many countries operate nuclear energy programmes, including through small modular reactor agreements, but argued that Iran's aim is to have its own enrichment capability. He pointed to past exploration of a weaponisation programme and said the prospect of the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism holding nuclear weapons is unacceptable, adding that virtually every country in the United Nations has at some point voted in support of that principle.
Rubio said Trump is not focused only on the next few years but on the next generation, and is committed to ensuring that any outcome is enduring rather than leaving the problem unresolved for a future administration. He also said the US military is working to keep part of the Strait of Hormuz open to commercial oil tankers, which are increasingly using the waterway to deliver oil around the world.