Rubio: Iran Deal Not Close Ahead of G7 Foreign Ministers Talks
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MENAFNSpeaking to reporters before leaving for Paris and a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, Rubio said: “You have a number of countries that continue to engage them with different ideas, but I wouldn’t say we’re on the verge of a breakthrough,”
“The president would always prefer to solve this and every problem diplomatically. Sometimes that’s not possible, unfortunately,” he added.
Washington remains open to diplomatic options, Rubio said, but he portrayed the talks as going nowhere and dismissed Iranian demands as “outrageous and ridiculous” and detached from reality.
Political cost no deterrent, Rubio says
Defending President Donald Trump’s handling of the war with Iran, now in its ninth month, Rubio argued that Trump moved against a long-standing threat to US national security despite the possible political fallout. He said keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons should be a bipartisan goal.
His comments come ahead of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris on Monday and Tuesday, where the Iran conflict is expected to be on the agenda.
The US and Israel launched a military offensive against Iran on Feb. 28. A ceasefire followed in April and a memorandum aimed at securing a peace deal came in June, but negotiations have yet to yield a final settlement.
Rubio spoke after limited US strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz in recent days. Trump confirmed Friday that American forces had hit Iranian air defense systems.
Asked when Washington might carry out further strikes, Rubio insisted that US action is defensive and hinges on threats to American forces or maritime traffic.
“Well, the US acts defensively. If there’s a threat to our forces in the region, we will act against those. If there’s a threat to shipping, we’ve been defending shipping for a while,” he said.
“So if there’s a clear and present threat to shipping or to our forces in the region, we have a right to defend ourselves,” he added.
Any such action, Rubio said, would turn on the level of threat and on whether Iranian forces were attacking, or possibly preparing to attack, US interests.
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