US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that a reported recent offerfrom Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under strict conditions is not acceptable to the United States or other countries. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Rubio said Iran has a different view of the strategic waterway than most of the rest of the world does: “What they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up, and you pay us.”
“That’s not opening the straits,” the top US diplomat said. “Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use them.” Rubio’s statement came after Axios reported that Iran had proposed an agreement on reopening the strait and ending the war, while delaying negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program for a later stage.
Later Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump had discussed a new proposal from Iran with top national security aides, while also indicating that Washington was not fully satisfied with what Tehran was offering. “I wouldn’t say they were considering it,” Leavitt adds, regarding an Iranian suggestion to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ending the US blockade. “I would say there’s a discussion.”
Separately, Iran insisted it was still in control of the strait, a key pathway for the global oil supply. Negotiations between the sides were meant to take place in Pakistan last week, during an ongoing ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, but the talks did not come together. According to Axios, Iran’s attempt to kickstart negotiations again by solving the issues centered on the Strait of Hormuz was conveyed to the US by Pakistani mediators. (Ed note: Anyone up for sending our man Marco Rubio in to box FM Araghchi's ears.) (Read More)
