US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday the United States is still willing to negotiate an end to the Iran crisis, but Tehran is not serious about talks, as the widening conflict disrupted two of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.
Rubio made his comments in a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that Tehran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire in efforts to salvage the interim ceasefire agreement signed by the US and Iran in June, which replaced an earlier April ceasefire.
In another sign that diplomacy remains alive, Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni has visited mediator Pakistan and asked Islamabad to continue its efforts.
Rubio said Washington was “always committed to diplomacy” but doubted whether Tehran was equally committed to negotiations.
“The problem we’re having right now is that they’re not serious about talks. If they’re serious, we’re serious. If they’re not, then we will do what’s necessary to protect our interests, and also the interests of our allies,” Rubio said in Manila.
He stressed that Iran could not be allowed to control the Strait of Hormuz, arguing it would create a dangerous precedent for the world including Southeast Asian countries, many of which have territorial disputes in the South China Sea with China.
“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,” Rubio said.
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With no diplomatic breakthrough in sight, the US military bombed targets across Iran for an 11th straight night on Tuesday.
Tehran residents reported hearing explosions in the early hours of Wednesday as Iran activated its air defenses over the capital, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said.
Explosions were also reported in the southeastern coastal cities of Chabahar and Konarak, and two blasts were heard in Bushehr, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
Earlier, Iran targeted US military sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan and a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump confirmed that 18 US service members had been killed so far in the war, including four in Iranian attacks on US military bases in Jordan and Iraq over the last few days.
Oil prices rose further in Asian trade on Wednesday after climbing more than 2 percent on Tuesday following the Houthi threats, with Brent crude hovering above $91 a barrel and US gasoline back over $4 a gallon.
On Tuesday, Trump renewed his threats to again attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz “pretty soon,” which he said in June 2025 had been “totally obliterated” after the US military bombed the facility, buried in a mountain range, that month. Iran promised it would retaliate.
Fifty civilians have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent US strikes on Iran, a health ministry official said.
ALARABIYA
