Rubio hints at ‘good news’ on the Strait of Hormuz, amid US-Iran peace talks

New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said that “significant progress” has been made in diplomatic efforts involving the US and Iran, while indicating that a “good news” regarding the Strait of Hormuz could be emerge in the coming hours.

While addressing a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday, Marco Rubio said, “I do think perhaps there is the possibility that over the next few hours the world will get some good news, at least with regards to the straits and with regards to a process that can ultimately leave us where the president wants us to be and that is a world that no longer has to be in fear or worry about an Iranian nuclear weapon and so, I do think there’s some good news on that front, but not final news on that front. But, perhaps a little bit later today, we’ll have more to say. But, some progress has been made. I don’t want to downplay that. But I also want to caveat it by saying we still have some work to do, we will see.”

Rubio reiterated US President Donald Trump’s stance that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon. He said, “On the Iran situation, there’ll be, I believe, maybe more news coming out a little bit later today on this topic. And I’ll leave it to the president to make further announcements on it. Suffice it to say that some progress has been made, significant progress, although not final progress has been made. Ultimately, here’s, I remind everybody, I think this ties into the second question that was asked with relations to it. What is the goal here? The goal here ultimately, the ultimate goal is that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon. The President has been clear about that they will never possess a nuclear weapon, certainly not as long as Donald Trump is president of the United States.”

He stressed that US and its partners in the Gulf region have been working on an outline that could lead to a completely open Strait of Hormuz without tolls. However, he mentioned that it requires that Iran fully accepts and implements it.

Rubio said, “Related to that is this issue of the straits. This is an international waterway. They don’t own it. It’s an international waterway and what they are doing now is basically they are threatening to destroy commercial vessels using an international waterway, that is illegal under any concept of international law that governs us. But it’s also an… but If we allowed that to become normal, we would be normalizing an unacceptable status quo and setting a dangerous precedent that could be replicated here in this region and in multiple places around the world. So, the desire, the president has, his preference is to find a diplomatic way that these problems can be solved that’s always the president’s preference. He would have much rather have me and the Department of State solve this problem than the Department of War having to solve this problem but the problem is going to be solved one way or the other.”

“So, we’ve made some progress over the last 48 hours working with our partners in the Gulf region on an outline that could also ultimately, if it succeeds, leave us not just with a completely open straits, and I mean open straits without tolls, and with addressing some of the key things that underpin what has been Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions in the past. So, we think we’ve made some progress on the outline of something that, if it works, could give us that outcome. Obviously, that will require full Iranian acceptance and then compliance, and it will require some future work on negotiating the details. When you’re talking about a nuclear program, as an example, these are highly technical matters and ones that would probably need to be addressed over some period of time,” he added.

He praised US President for his commitment on Iran not having nuclear weapon, stressing that several presidents of the US have said same thing but only Trump has “actually done anything about it.” He said that Trump’s commitment to Iran not having nuclear weapon should not be questioned by anyone.

Rubio said, “On the issue of benefits that they could get from it and whatever domestic criticisms there may be, I don’t think anyone’s been tougher on the Iranian nuclear ambition than President Trump. Understand, okay. Again, I’m not, I don’t know what some of these individual comments have been from different sectors of our politics in the United States, but I will say this. There is no one who has been stronger on this issue than President Trump. Multiple political leaders, multiple presidents of the United States have all said the same thing.”

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The only one who’s tried to do anything and has actually done anything about it in a real way has been President Trump. So, his commitment to that principle that they’ll never have a nuclear weapon shouldn’t be questioned by anybody. And the idea that somehow this president, given everything he’s already proven he’s willing to do, is going to somehow agree to a deal that ultimately winds up putting Iran in a stronger position when it comes to nuclear ambitions is absurd. That’s just not going to happen. But our preference is to address this through a diplomatic means and that’s what we’re endeavouring to do here. I think we’ve made some progress,” he added.

IANS