Rubio says Strait of Hormuz to reopen ‘one way or another’ amid Iran war | US-Israel war on Iran News

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told Al Jazeera that the Strait of Hormuz will “reopen one way or another” in the wake of the eventual end of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

The exclusive interview with Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra on Monday came as speculation has grown over a possible US troop deployment in Iran and as the effective closure of the strait continues to roil global oil markets.

US boots on the ground would represent a new phase in the grinding conflict, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes, even as US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the US is pursuing diplomacy with Iran.

Rubio again maintained there were “messages and some direct talks going on between some inside of Iran and the United States, primarily through intermediaries, but there’s been some conversation”.

Iran has repeatedly denied that talks were ongoing. Pakistan on Sunday said it would host direct talks “in the coming days for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the ongoing conflict”.

Rubio added that Trump “always prefers diplomacy, always prefers an outcome … and we could have done this before”.

The Trump administration had previously pursued indirect talks with Iran to curtail its nuclear programme. One round of talks was derailed in June of last year with Israel’s 12-day war against Iran, which ended with US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facility.

A second round of diplomacy was underway when the US and Israel began the latest war.

Rubio again indicated the US administration’s preference for regime change in Iran, which the US and Israel have so far been unable to achieve despite several high-profile assassinations, including the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He added that it remains unclear to the US whether Khamenei’s replacement, his son Mojtaba Khamenei, remains in power, explaining it was unclear “how decisions are being made inside of Iran”.

“We would always welcome a scenario in which Iran was led by people that had a different view of the future and had a different view,” he said. “And if that opportunity presents itself, we’re going to take it.”

“The people of Iran are incredible people, very resourceful, very entrepreneurial,” he added.

“But it’s their regime that’s been a problem. And instead, they’ve chosen to spend the wealth of their country to support Hezbollah and Hamas and Shiite militias inside of Iraq, and to try to destabilise Syria when [President Bashar al-Assad] was there,” he said.

Nuclear and ballistic weapons

Rubio further called on Iran to end its nuclear programme and to curtail its drone and missile programme.

He accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons to “threaten and blackmail the world”, a claim Tehran has for years denied, maintaining its nuclear programme was only for civilian purposes.

Rubio did not completely rule out Iran attaining nuclear energy capabilities in the future, but said they cannot have a “system that allows them to quickly weaponise”. Trump withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement that saw Iran curtail its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, during his first term as president in 2018.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was considering a US Special Forces operation to seize enriched uranium stored in Iran. Military experts have warned throughout the war that US and Israeli air strikes alone would not be able to destroy Iran’s capabilities.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not deny the report, but said: “It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the Commander-in-Chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the President has made a decision.”

Message to Gulf region

Al Jazeera’s Ahelbarra also asked if Rubio had a message for US allies in the Gulf region, many of whom had pushed for a diplomatic solution ahead of the war. The region has since seen daily attacks that have at times targeted critical energy installations, among other civilian infrastructure.

“I think the best way to stability, given the people who are in charge in Iran, is to destroy the ability of Iran in the future to launch these missiles and these drones against their infrastructure and civilian population,” Rubio said.

“This is an Iran that’s weaker than it’s been in 10 years. Imagine five years from now, or three from now, when they had more missiles, more drones, what they would have been willing to do to their neighbours and to us, that was intolerable,” Rubio said. “That’s why this needed to be done now”.

Rubio added that Iran needs “to stop sponsoring terrorism, and they need to stop building weapons that can threaten their neighbours,” adding that the “short-range missiles that they’re launching, they only have one purpose, and that is to attack Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Qatar and Kuwait and Bahrain.”

Strait of Hormuz

Turning to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed to open traffic, Rubio rejected Iran’s demand that it must maintain “sovereignty” over the arterial waterway as part of any agreement to end the war.

“The Strait of Hormuz will be open when this operation is over … one way or another,” Rubio said. “It will be open because Iran agrees to abide by international law and not block the commercial waterway, or a coalition of nations around the world and the region, with the participation of the United States, will make sure that it’s open.”

He threatened “real consequences” if Iran closes the strait after the fighting ends.

The US has previously sought to raise a coalition to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz, but has faced wariness from many traditional allies concerned about tacit entry into the conflict.

Rubio also took aim at NATO members who have denied the US military access to airspace and military bases for its Iran operations.

‘Our objectives in Iran are clear’

Rubio’s statements on Monday broadly reflected a list of demands put forth by Washington to end the war.

Iran has rejected the proposal, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian releasing its own list of demands, including “recognising Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm int’l guarantees against future aggression”.

For his part, Trump told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday that he hopes to “take the oil in Iran” including by possibly seizing the key export hub of Kharg Island.

“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” he added. “It would also mean we had to be there [on Kharg Island] for a while.”

On Monday, Trump threatened to “blow up” desalination plants in Iran if a deal is not made, in what would be a blatant violation of international law.

The Trump administration has presented a carousel of objectives in the war, including degrading Iran’s military capability, preventing it from ever developing a nuclear weapon, and helping to foment regime change.

However, its endgame has remained unclear, with its final goals possibly diverging from Israel, which has pushed for more comprehensive regime change.

To date, at least 1,937 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, with at least 20 killed in Israel, 26 killed across the Gulf states, and 13 US soldiers killed.

Rubio told Al Jazeera that the administration did not expect the war to drag on indefinitely.

“We have very clear objectives that we’re trying to achieve here. Those objectives are the destruction of their air force, which has been achieved; the destruction of their navy, which has largely been achieved; [and] a significant reduction in the number of missile launchers that they have, which we’re well on our way to achieving.”

“And we are going to destroy the factories that make those missiles and those drones that they are using to attack their neighbours and the United States and our presence in the region,” he said.

“And that’s something that’s not going to take months. I’m not going to tell you exactly how many weeks, but a matter of weeks, not months,” he said.