{"id":212509,"date":"2026-06-03T08:55:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/rubio-says-iran-ready-to-discuss-nuclear-deal-as-tehran-declares-peace-talks-over-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:55:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:55:50","slug":"rubio-says-iran-ready-to-discuss-nuclear-deal-as-tehran-declares-peace-talks-over-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/rubio-says-iran-ready-to-discuss-nuclear-deal-as-tehran-declares-peace-talks-over-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio says Iran ready to discuss nuclear deal as Tehran declares peace talks over – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secretary of state appears before Congress and repeats Trump administration\u2019s claims that a deal is within reach
Iran<\/a> has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear program that it had refused to discuss even a month ago, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio<\/a>, has claimed, even as Tehran announced it was halting peace talks and moving to fully close the strait of Hormuz.
Appearing before the Senate foreign relations committee for the first time since the Trump administration<\/a> launched the war against Iran \u2013 which was pitched as a short, weeks-long war, in February \u2013 Rubio repeated the Trump administration\u2019s claims that a deal was within reach.
He arrived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the morning after Iran\u2019s state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported<\/a> that Tehran would stop exchanging messages with Washington through intermediaries, pointing to Israel\u2019s military operations in Lebanon as a ceasefire violation.
Donald Trump later claimed conversations \u201chave been going on continuously\u201d and insisted it was false to suggest officials had stopped speaking.
And Rubio insisted progress could be made soon. \u201cThere is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week \u2013 that for the first time, certainly in my memory, they have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago\u201d they said they would not, he told senators.
Rubio also claimed that Mojtaba Khamenei \u2013 who succeeded his father Ali Khamenei after the supreme leader was killed in the opening US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, and has not been seen in public since assuming office \u2013 was alive, and more involved in the regime\u2019s efforts. \u201cI think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level,\u201d he said.
On the military picture, Rubio suggested that Iran\u2019s missile program had been \u201csubstantially degraded\u201d, its launcher capacity reduced, and its drone-building capability \u201ceroded\u201d.
\u201cThere is no Iranian navy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt lies at the bottom of the ocean, and will soon, within a number of years, be prime fishing spots, because they\u2019ll turn into reefs.\u201d
Rubio conceded the regime still has \u201ca lot of drones\u201d, however. \u201cBecause these are easy to make,\u201d he said . \u201cThis is a pervasive problem around the world.\u201d
Such claims about the vast destruction of Iranian\u2019s military capabilities have been contested. The New York Times reported<\/a> in May that Iran had retained roughly 70% of its prewar missile stockpile, though analysts noted<\/a> the more significant damage may be to Iran\u2019s ability to replace them, with over 85% of Iran\u2019s ballistic missile, drone and naval defense industrial base damaged, or destroyed.
Rubio laid out a two-phase framework in more granular terms than the administration had previously offered publicly. Reopening the strait of Hormuz \u2013 with Iran announcing clearly it was not charging tolls, helping remove the mines it placed there, and committing not to fire on ships \u2013 was a precondition for any talks, not a bargaining chip.
\u201cThat\u2019s the predicate that opens the door to phase two,\u201d he said. Phase two would require Iran to commit to disposing of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and to negotiate \u201csevere and long-term limitations, and or cancellation of enrichment activity\u201d.
In an exchange with the Democratic US senator for Connecticut Chris Murphy, Rubio ruled out offering sanctions relief simply to reopen the vital waterway, which has been all but closed since the start of the war. \u201cAny sanctions relief is condition-based,\u201d he said, and was tied to Iran\u2019s nuclear program, the long-held basis for the sanctions. \u201cThat\u2019s not been discussed, that\u2019s not been offered.\u201d
The ceasefire agreed in April had included an Iranian commitment to reopen the strait. Trump later said<\/a> Iran had \u201cknowingly failed\u201d to honor that pledge, and on 13 April the US launched a counter-blockade targeting all ships seeking to reach Iranian ports.
Rubio told senators on Tuesday that the blockade was costing Tehran \u201chundreds of millions of dollars a day\u201d in lost oil revenue. \u201cIf they\u2019re going to shut down the straits for everybody,\u201d he said, \u201cwe\u2019re going to shut down the straits for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

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

Secretary of state appears before Congress and repeats Trump administration\u2019s claims that a deal is within reachIran has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear program that it had refused to discuss even a month ago, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has claimed, even as Tehran announced it was halting peace talks and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212510,"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-212509","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\/212509","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=212509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}