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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back Sunday against any expectation of a swift nuclear agreement with Iran, telling The New York Times that while a proposed deal had won broad backing from countries across the region, the technical complexity of nuclear diplomacy made a rapid resolution impossible.
"We're not kicking it till later. Nuclear talks are highly technical matters. You can't do a nuclear thing in 72 hours on the back of a napkin," Rubio said in a brief interview with the Times.
The remarks came after President Donald Trump instructed his negotiating team not to rush into an agreement with Iran, a country the United States has been at war with for roughly three months.
The conflict, which began in late February following U.S. and Israeli strikes, has left Iran's military infrastructure severely degraded and its longtime Supreme Leader dead, while drawing in negotiations mediated by Pakistan over issues including Iran's nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions relief, and reconstruction.
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Rubio indicated that Washington had assembled substantial diplomatic backing for its negotiating framework, saying seven or eight nations in the region were now aligned behind the American approach. "We have seven or eight countries in the region that are endorsing this approach, and we're prepared to move forward on this approach," he said.
The breadth of that support marks a notable development in a crisis that has rattled global energy markets and reshaped the strategic landscape of the Middle East. Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant share of global oil and gas shipments pass, has added economic urgency to the negotiations.
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