US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview released Wednesday that Iran must give up all nuclear enrichment if it wants to make a deal during talks with the Trump administration and head off the threat of armed conflict.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian energy use and says it does not seek to make weapons-grade uranium to build atomic bombs.
“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries can have one, and that is they import enriched material,” Rubio said in a podcast interview with journalist Bari Weiss.
Rubio said in the interview the U.S. is “a long ways away from any sort of agreement with Iran.”
“We recognize it’s difficult and hard. Oftentimes, unfortunately, peace is,” he continued. “But we’re committed to achieving a peaceful outcome that’s acceptable to everyone. It may not be possible, we don’t know.”
“I don’t even know if Iran knows how to make a deal. They’ve got their own internal political dynamics in their country they have to work through. But we would want to achieve a peaceful resolution to this and not resort to anything else, or even speculate about it at this point,” he added.