{"id":212503,"date":"2026-06-03T07:54:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/irans-supreme-leader-appears-more-active-as-talks-continue-uss-rubio-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T07:54:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:54:52","slug":"irans-supreme-leader-appears-more-active-as-talks-continue-uss-rubio-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/irans-supreme-leader-appears-more-active-as-talks-continue-uss-rubio-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s supreme leader appears more active as talks continue: US\u2019s Rubio – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addressing US lawmakers, Rubio said Tehran has agreed to discuss previously off-limits aspects of its nuclear programme.<\/em>
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United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appears to be taking a more active role as negotiations between the two countries continue following an April 8 truce.
Testifying before the US\u2019s Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Rubio said there are signs that Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly since US air strikes killed his father and predecessor<\/a> on the first day of the war, is alive and more deeply engaged in the country\u2019s affairs.
\u201cI think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries,\u201d said the US\u2019s top diplomat.<\/p>\n

Rubio\u2019s remarks come as Tehran is reviewing<\/a> the latest version of a US proposal aimed at ending the war, which US President Donald Trump reportedly tightened the terms of in recent days.
Iran\u2019s semi-official Mehr news agency cited a source close to the country\u2019s negotiating team as saying Tehran is still studying the latest proposal and has not communicated with the US in several days. The official stressed Iran was taking a \u201cstern\u201d approach given what it sees as US non-compliance with the ceasefire and general mistrust.
Trump has said his priorities for any deal<\/a> include Iran agreeing to never develop nuclear weapons and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies transited before the war.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump disputed reports that talks with Iran had paused, saying \u201cconversations between us have been going on continuously\u201d. \u201cWhere they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, \u2018It\u2019s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal\u2019,\u201d wrote Trump in his Truth Social platform.
Addressing lawmakers, Rubio said the US talks with Iran may now include \u201caspects of their nuclear programme\u201d the country was unwilling to discuss as recently as a month ago.
However, \u201cthat is not a guarantee it will ultimately lead to a deal that\u2019s acceptable,\u201d Rubio cautioned.
\u201cThere is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week,\u201d he added.
Rubio, who also serves as Trump\u2019s national security adviser, said the first condition in the talks was that Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz, and it also had to commit to negotiations on its stock of highly enriched uranium.
Asked whether the US would lift sanctions on Iran in return for the country reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Rubio said that would not be sufficient.
\u201cThat\u2019s not been discussed. That\u2019s not been offered,\u201d said Rubio, adding that sanctions relief would only come after significant concession on the nuclear programme and the enriched uranium.
Al Jazeera\u2019s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC, said Rubio\u2019s remarks give the clearest indication to date of \u201cwhat the negotiations are actually centred on\u201d.
\u201cThe US isn\u2019t even offering any carrots,\u201d said Culhane. \u201cHe [Rubio] talked about the stick, that they have to open the Strait of Hormuz and then the Iranians have to commit to getting rid of its enriched uranium and limits on future uranium.\u201d
The UN\u2019s International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Rafael Grossi, said Iran has stopped many nuclear activities that were previously taking place in the country. In comments cited by the Reuters news agency, Grossi said any deal to end the war on Iran should have robust verification and monitoring mechanisms.<\/p>\n

The US-Israel war on Iran that began on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. It has caused global pain by pushing up energy prices since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which previously carried about a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas.
It also triggered the latest round of conflict between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah, with Israel invading deep into Lebanon and even attacking parts of the capital Beirut.
On Tuesday, Israel \u2060kept up deadly strikes on a string of towns<\/a> in southern Lebanon, despite a US-mediated partial ceasefire<\/a> announced the day before.
The continuing Israeli attacks in Lebanon have become a major point of contention<\/a> for Iran, which insists a full ceasefire in Lebanon must be part of any agreement with Washington
Iran\u2019s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said he told Lebanon\u2019s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri if Israel\u2019s \u201caggression against Lebanon continues\u201d, Tehran \u201cwill not only halt the path of negotiations\u201d with the US, \u201cbut we will also be in direct confrontation with the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addressing US lawmakers, Rubio said Tehran has agreed to discuss previously off-limits aspects of its nuclear programme.SaveShareUnited States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appears to be taking a more active role as negotiations between the two countries continue following an April 8 truce.Testifying before the US\u2019s Senate Foreign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}