US still open to diplomatic solution with Iran if attacks in Hormuz end, Rubio says

WASHINGTON, Jul 20 (APP):United States  Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late Sunday night that Washington remained open to diplomacy with Iran, even as U.S. forces intensified their military campaign with a ninth consecutive night of bombing in the Islamic Republic.

“The United States is still open to a diplomatic solution with Iran,” he told reporters on his return from a tour of the Middle East.

“It has to be real,” he explained. “It has to be a deal that they’re willing to live by,” Rubio added.

“Look, Iran, a week ago, was supposed to put out a statement saying that the Straits of Hormuz would be open, that they would no longer attack shipping. And instead of doing that, they attacked three ships. I think that was last Friday or Saturday. So, I mean, their behaviour has to change in order for ours to change.”

Rubio also claimed that there was a “growing split” in Iran between the more militant extremists who continue to attack the US and other countries and those who are concerned with Iran’s economy.

“If the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system or take control of the negotiations, that ‘ll be a very positive development,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Zarif, a former Iranian foreign minister who helped elect the country’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, acknowledged in an essay published Monday by ‘Foreign Policy’ magazine  that “the deal could never survive such dissonance” over the Strait of Hormuz.

“As the current conflict makes clear, Washington cannot eliminate the Iranian government,” Zarif wrote. “Only diplomacy, a new peace agreement, and a new security framework produced by regional states and for regional states will allow the United States to turn its attention elsewhere.”

However, Zarif did warn the country’s government that “if Iran repeatedly threatens maritime traffic, it could turn much of the world against it.”

Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of U.S. strikes. Since the war began on Feb. 28, 17 U.S. service members have been killed.