Rubio Rejects Breakthrough With Iran, Trump Says Strikes "Highly Unlikely"

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down the chances of a breakthrough in talks on ending the conflict with Iran, saying Tehran's demands to date are unacceptable and in some cases "outrageous and ridiculous."Rubio's comments to reporters contrasted with Donald Trump's tone after CNN quoted the president earlier Sunday as saying it's "highly unlikely" he'll order more strikes on Iran if negotiations make substantial progress."You have a number of countries that continue to engage them with different ideas, but I wouldn't say we're on the verge of a breakthrough," Rubio said in Florida before leaving to meet Group of Seven counterparts in Paris, where the Iran war will be on the agenda.Iran has previously said the US must end a naval blockade of its Persian Gulf ports and lift sanctions as preconditions for peace talks. Washington is pressing Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and make concessions on its nuclear program.While Trump would always prefer a diplomatic solution, "it hasn't been very productive because the Iranian demands are simply not just unacceptable, but in some cases outrageous and ridiculous and really unrealistic," Rubio said, without specifying which of Iran's demands he was referring to. Trump on Sunday renewed his claim that the US has succeeded in denying Iran a nuclear weapon and that the American naval blockade is "choking it off." He also hinted at reluctance among Persian Gulf allies to see a resumption of major hostilities."We won that in Iran, it's just a question of closing it out now or later," Trump told reporters in Florida before boarding the presidential plane back to Washington. "Some of their neighbors would prefer that we just keep it the way it is."CNN reported earlier that Trump left the door open to ending the war."It depends on whether or not they sign a very strong agreement," CNN cited Trump as saying in a phone call on Sunday. "The answer is: highly unlikely it will be necessary.""I would if necessary, but we hit them really hard," Trump added. Trump has acknowledged that the unpopular conflict, which has driven up oil and gasoline prices, played a role in Republicans' decisive defeat in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. He has defended the war, launched with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, as necessary to deny Tehran nuclear weapons.Oil extended its biggest weekly drop since April 2020, with Brent falling 0.4% after Trump said it was unlikely he would order further strikes. Diplomacy returned to focus last week after the US midterms with Qatar, the chief mediator between the US and Iran, saying that Tehran was studying proposals related to its nuclear activities. Trump recently spoke with Qatar's leader about efforts to de-escalate tensions, a renewed signal of the president's desire to end the war.However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday "there has been no activity or movement from the mediators" in recent days following the elections in the US.What "remains to be seen is how long it will take them to come to terms with the result and what direction they will take," Araghchi told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)