US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, November 8, that negotiations with Iran have made little progress and that Washington is not close to a diplomatic breakthrough with Tehran — the bluntest official assessment yet of talks that have run, through mediators, for months. Speaking to reporters at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida before departing for France and a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris, Rubio said: "I have no progress to report. There are several countries that continue to engage with Iran and put forward various ideas, but I would not say that we are on the verge of a breakthrough."

Source: The Jerusalem Post via Jewish News

Rubio said President Donald Trump continues to favour a diplomatic solution, but that Iranian demands remain the obstacle. "The president will always prefer to resolve this problem, like any other problem, through diplomatic means. Unfortunately, sometimes that is impossible. If there is an opportunity to do so, we will examine it. At the moment, the talks have not been particularly productive because the Iranian demands are simply unacceptable, and in some cases they are outrageous, ridiculous, and detached from reality," he said. His remarks stopped short of announcing that talks had ended or setting any deadline for an agreement.

Source: The Jerusalem Post via Jewish News

Rubio also addressed the possibility of fresh US strikes on Iran, saying Washington would act if American forces or shipping in the region came under threat: "If there is a clear and immediate threat to shipping or to our forces in the region, we have the right to defend ourselves. It all depends on the level of the threat and whether they are acting against us or intend to do so," he said.

Source: The Jerusalem Post via Jewish News

Rubio's assessment landed hours after Trump himself struck a different tone, telling CNN that fresh strikes were 'highly unlikely' if negotiations progress and Tehran signs a strong agreement. Read: Trump tells CNN new Iran strikes are 'highly unlikely' if talks progress

'Not necessarily popular, but necessary' — Rubio defends the war

America's top diplomat offered a robust defence of the more than eight-month-old war even as voters blamed Trump's policies for the hit to their pocketbooks, including higher energy prices stemming from disruptions to shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, the Associated Press reported. He would not comment directly on the Republican wipeout in Tuesday's midterm elections, which delivered a resounding rebuke to Trump and handed Democrats control of Congress. Asked about Vice President JD Vance's social media post last week that largely blamed the war for the Republican losses, Rubio said Trump "identified a very real threat" in Iran and worked to stop it pursuing a nuclear weapon: "He addressed it even though oftentimes the right thing to do for the country — confronting difficult challenges for the security of our country — doing it isn't necessarily popular, but necessary."

Source: Associated Press

Trump himself responded to Vance on Sunday, saying his vice president was right — other than that he should also have insisted the war was the correct choice. "I can tell you if I had it to do again, this historically — for history — will go down as one of the best things we ever did," Trump said. "Because if they ever had a nuclear weapon, they would blow up the world." Rubio's comments put him publicly at odds with Vance amid speculation about both men's 2028 presidential ambitions, the AP noted.

Source: Associated Press

The nuclear file at the centre of the deadlock

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is peaceful. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran holds 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Washington's position, restated by Rubio on Sunday, is that a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable: "A nuclear Iran would be unacceptable and dangerous not only to Israel and the Middle East, but to the entire world and the United States. The president confronted a threat that other presidents were unable to confront. Sometimes doing the right thing is not necessarily popular, but it is necessary."

Source: Associated Press; The Jerusalem Post

What Tehran wants first

The Associated Press has reported that Iran was reviewing proposals presented by chief mediator Qatar aimed at addressing differences with the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme. But Iran was seen as unwilling to negotiate over its atomic activities until the US agrees to several core conditions Tehran has demanded be part of any agreement, officials have said: ending the US blockade on Iran's ports, lifting sanctions, unfreezing its assets, issuing compensation for war damage, and ending hostilities throughout the region, including Israeli operations in Lebanon. Separately, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday that Tehran had submitted a nuclear proposal through Qatar and that discussion would depend on Washington first meeting Iran's seven demands.

Source: Associated Press

Two voices, one Sunday — and a war that has not stopped

The two messages from Washington on the same Sunday point in different directions: the president signalling that strikes are unlikely if talks move, his secretary of state saying the talks are going nowhere. Meanwhile the war itself has not paused. The US military has still carried out limited strikes on Iran, including against its air defences, at least twice over the past week, and on Saturday it fired on and disabled a commercial ship it says was trying to breach its naval blockade on Iranian ports, the AP reported. "If there's a clear and present threat to shipping or to our forces in the region, we have a right to defend ourselves," Rubio said.

Source: Associated Press

What happens next

Rubio's trip runs November 8–10: the G7 foreign ministers meet in Paris on Monday and Tuesday, with Iran and Ukraine at the top of the agenda and suspected pro-Russian cyber attacks also tabled. Mediators — Qatar in the lead, with Pakistan also relaying texts between Washington and Tehran — keep shuttling proposals, but on Rubio's own account no breakthrough is near and no deadline has been set. For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers in the Gulf, the stalemate is the story: as long as there is no deal, the Strait of Hormuz stays disrupted, fuel and food prices stay hostage to the next incident, and every family remittance rides on a war that neither side is winning at the table.