‘Good news on Hormuz in next few hours’: Marco Rubio hints at US Iran deal breakthrough

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday signalled a possible breakthrough in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying “significant progress” had been made over the past 48 hours and that the world could receive “good news” on the crisis-hit waterway within the next few hours.

Speaking at a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi, Rubio said more announcements could come later in the day, though he stressed that negotiations were not yet complete.

“On the Iran situation, there’ll be, I believe, maybe more news coming out a little bit later today on this topic. 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,” Rubio said.

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The remarks came hours after US President Donald Trump said Washington and Tehran were close to finalising an agreement that could end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints.

Rubio said the negotiations remained tied to Washington’s long-standing objective of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“What is the goal here? 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 also accused Tehran of threatening international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. “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.”

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If such actions were allowed to continue, Rubio warned, they would create a dangerous precedent beyond the Gulf region. “If we allowed that to become normal, we would be normalising an unacceptable status quo and setting a dangerous precedent that could be replicated here in this region and in multiple places around the world.”

Rubio revealed that discussions with Gulf partners had produced the outline of a possible framework. “We’ve made some progress over the last 48 hours working with our partners in the Gulf region on an outline that could ultimately, if it succeeds, leave us not just with a completely open Strait (Hormuz) – and I mean open strait without tolls – and with addressing some of the key things that underpin what has been Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions in the past.”

But he cautioned that any breakthrough remained contingent on Tehran’s acceptance and implementation. “Obviously, that will require full Iranian acceptance and then compliance, and it will require some future work on negotiating the details.”

Even so, Rubio suggested the talks may have reached a critical stage. “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 Strait (Hormuz) 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.”

He, however, ended on a note of guarded optimism. “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. 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.”