Will US-Iran talks resume? Marco Rubio says Tehran is not ‘serious’

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country remains willing to resolve the Iran crisis through diplomacy, but accused Tehran of not being serious about talks as disruptions hit two of the world’s most strategic shipping chokepoints.

Rubio’s comments came during a meeting of Southeast Asian ministers, a day after three oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia backtracked in the Red Sea in wake of the threats from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.

Rubio said in a statement in the Philippine capital: “The problem we’re having right now is that they are not serious about talks. If they are serious, if they are not, then we will do what's necessary to protect our interests and also the interests of our allies.”

This comes as the US launched airstrikes against Iran for an eleventh consecutive night causing multiple blasts in several parts of the country.

“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll, and if you don’t pay them blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent, which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” 

“At its core, it’s very simple. Iran demands the right, which they do not have under any existing legal mechanism, to control the transit of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz,” Rubio continued.

Rubio also discussed the US diplomatic relationship with ASEAN member states-a matter of broad concern for Washington and underlined that the security and prosperity of the US and Southeast Asia are inextricably linked.

Trump renewed his threats on Tuesday to target Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, which the US military had previously struck. Additionally, a health minister official stated that fifty people have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent US attacks on Iran.