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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that negotiations with Iran had seen "some slight progress" but warned that Tehran's reported bid to establish a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz was unacceptable and that the fundamentals of any deal remained unchanged.
"Iran could never possess nuclear weapons," Rubio told reporters ahead of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden.
"There's been some slight progress. I don't want to exaggerate it, but there's been a little bit of movement, and that's good," Rubio said, noting, "the fundamentals remain the same. Iran can never have nuclear weapons. It just cannot make them."
He said the issues of uranium enrichment and Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium would have to be addressed in any agreement.
Rubio accused Iran of attempting to establish a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz and said Tehran was trying to persuade Oman to join the initiative.
"There is not a country in the world that should accept that," Rubio said.
"If that were to happen in the Straits of Hormuz, it will happen in five other places around the world. The countries around the world, why wouldn't they say, 'We want to do that too?'" he added.
He noted that Washington was working through the United Nations on a Bahrain-sponsored resolution, which already holds broad international backing, while criticizing unnamed Security Council members currently weighing a veto.
"Let's see if the United Nations still works," Rubio said.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, speaking alongside Rubio, said the Helsingborg meeting would focus on defense spending, Ukraine and freedom of navigation.
"I hear from many of my colleagues here that it is not acceptable that the freedom of navigation is basically trampled upon as it is at the moment," Rutte said.
He also thanked the U.S. for continuing military support to Ukraine, particularly the supply of interceptor systems funded by European and Canadian allies.
Rubio reiterated Trump's frustration with alliance members who had not supported U.S. operations in the Middle East.
"The president's views, frankly, his disappointment, at some of our NATO allies and their response to our operations in the Middle East, they're well documented, that will have to be addressed, that won't be solved or addressed today," Rubio said.
He described it as a matter for discussion at the leaders' level and said cooperation in other areas was continuing in the meantime.
On U.S. troop movements in Europe, Rubio pushed back against characterizations of the deployments as punishment.
"The United States continues to have global commitments that it needs to meet in terms of our force deployment, and that constantly requires us to reexamine where we put troops. This is not a punitive thing, it's just something that's ongoing," Rubio said, referencing Trump's announcement the previous night on deploying troops to Poland.
He said decisions could be made cooperatively with allies and described the process as "very positive and productive."
Rubio said the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara would be "one of the more important leaders' summits in the history of NATO," with defense industrial production, burden sharing and global security among its key priorities.
"Like any alliance, it has to be good for everyone who's involved. There has to be a clear understanding of what the expectations are," Rubio added.
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