Marco Rubio Says Iran Agreed to Negotiate Nuclear Points as Trump Denies Talks Paused

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he is optimistic about a potential resumption in nuclear talks with Iran, saying the Iranians have agreed to negotiate on nuclear points they had refused to even mention before.

“Trump pushing Iran to make firmer nuclear commitments in initial deal: Sources Iran has not signaled whether it will accept the terms, officials say”

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Rubio said, “They have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention,” while also warning there was “not a guarantee that ultimately it will lead to a deal that’s acceptable.”

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Trump disputed Iranian media claims that talks had paused, writing on Truth Social, “Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous.”

DW reported Rubio also said the U.S. would watch Iran’s World Cup delegation for IRGC ties, adding that Washington would not allow people with “ties to the IRGC” to embed in the delegation.

Rubio’s testimony came as the U.S. and Iran navigated a shaky ceasefire, with Al Jazeera reporting that Rubio said there are signs Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “increasingly engaging at some level” in negotiations.

NBC News reported that Iran suspended high-stakes negotiations with the United States on Monday to protest Israel’s expanding military offensive in Lebanon, quoting Tasnim that the Iranian negotiating team would suspend “talks and the exchange of texts through mediators.”

In the same NBC News account, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Nabih Berri that if Israeli attacks in Lebanon continue, Iran would “not only suspend the negotiation process, but we will also stand against the Zionist regime.”

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Trump, however, insisted on Truth Social that “conversations between us have been going on continuously,” and he added, “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It's time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal.”

Al Jazeera reported Rubio’s remarks to lawmakers came after an April 8 truce and said there are signs Khamenei is alive and more deeply engaged, despite not being seen publicly since U.S. air strikes killed his father and predecessor on the first day of the war.

ABC News reported Rubio told senators the administration wanted Iran to put specific nuclear concessions down in writing, including “the disposition of the highly enriched uranium that still is buried deep in a mountain somewhere.”

Rubio told lawmakers that the first condition in the talks was that Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz and committed to negotiations on its stock of highly enriched uranium, while also saying sanctions relief would only come after significant concession on the nuclear programme.

In Al Jazeera’s account of Rubio’s testimony, he said, “That’s not been discussed. That’s not been offered,” when asked whether the U.S. would lift sanctions in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

ABC News reported that Rubio said the administration had not offered to lift sanctions targeting Iran or unfreeze any of its assets as part of the initial deal, insisting it would only be on the table once Iran followed through with promises to curb its nuclear program.

DW reported Rubio also framed the U.S. approach to Iran as conditional, telling senators that any sanctions relief was “condition-based,” meaning it had to be in return for Iran’s nuclear program.

The stakes for the U.S. were also reflected in the dispute over ceasefire compliance, with NBC News quoting Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry saying the U.S. “bears direct responsibility both for the violations of the ceasefire against Iran and for the violations committed by the Zionist regime against Lebanon.”