Rubio “Hormuz Tolls Make Deal Unfeasible”; “Completely Illegal”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday that a diplomatic deal between the United States and Iran would be “unfeasible” if Tehran implemented a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz. “No one in the world is in favour of the tolling system. It can’t happen. It would be unacceptable. It would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible if they were to continue to pursue that. So it’s a threat to the world if they were trying to do that, and it’s completely illegal,” Rubio said. He acknowledged there had been “some progress” in talks with Tehran but said Washington was dealing with “a system that itself is a little fractured”. “There’s some good signs… I don’t want to be overly optimistic.”
The Rubio framing — “a system that itself is a little fractured” — tracks Vice President JD Vance’s Tuesday White House press-briefing line that the difficulty of negotiation is the “fractured Iranian leadership”. Both phrasings pass responsibility for any breakdown onto Tehran rather than Washington. Reuters has separately reported that both US and Iranian officials say nuclear weapons and the Strait of Hormuz remain the two binding “sticking points”. The Pakistani-led mediation channel continues; Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi travelled to Tehran on Tuesday for further talks. Trump on Thursday reposted a New York Post op-ed by Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies titled “Here’s how to crush Tehran in three moves” — the diplomatic-and-military oscillation continues.