Rubio: US and Iran Still in Talks, Uncertain When Agreement Will Be Reached

Odaily Odaily reports that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the 2nd that the US is still in negotiations with Iran, but he is uncertain when an agreement will be reached. This is Rubio's first testimony before Congress after the US and Israel launched a large-scale military operation against Iran at the end of February. When responding to a lawmaker's question about the progress of US-Iran negotiations, he said, "We are negotiating with Iran," and that Iran "has agreed to negotiate some aspects of its nuclear program, whereas just a month ago, or even a year ago, they were unwilling to talk at all." Rubio said an agreement with Iran "could be reached today, tomorrow, or next week," but this "does not guarantee that a deal acceptable to Congress will ultimately be finalized." Rubio also stated that the US has not proposed lifting sanctions on Iran or allowing it to access frozen funds as a condition for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. "This has never been discussed or proposed. Any sanctions relief must be conditional. This means it must be contingent on resolving the root cause for imposing those sanctions in the first place, which is Iran's nuclear program." (Jin Shi)