WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he is optimistic about the potential for a resumption in nuclear talks with Iran despite a shaky ceasefire in the war that is looking increasingly in doubt.<\/p>\n
Rubio defended the Trump administration\u2019s approach to Iran and other global hot spots in back-to-back hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a House Appropriations subcommittee. He was briefly disrupted by protesters at each session.<\/p>\n
In his first public testimony since the Iran war began at the end of February, Rubio said the Iranians have agreed to negotiate on nuclear points that they had not been willing to address in the past but would not offer an assessment on what those talks might produce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention,\u201d Rubio told the Senate. He noted, however, that there was no guarantee \u201cit will lead to a deal that\u2019s acceptable\u201d and that negotiations have been made difficult by the instability of Iran\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
Rubio\u2019s optimism ran counter to pessimistic reports from two semiofficial Iranian news agencies that Iran has stopped communicating with mediators after Israel threatened to bomb Beirut as it fights the Hezbollah militant group. President Trump disputed that Iran has cut off communication with mediators, calling Iranian reports of a cessation in talks \u201cfalse and erroneous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats criticize Trump administration\u2019s approach to Iran, and Rubio defends it<\/p>\n
Rubio\u2019s wide-ranging testimony was met with fierce objections from Democrats, including tough questions about the status of U.S. foreign assistance to respond to diseases such as the Ebola outbreak in Africa. Rubio insisted that the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development had not affected Washington\u2019s ability to assist with global humanitarian responses.<\/p>\n
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) blasted Rubio and Trump for foreign aid cuts and overseas intervention. Van Hollen specifically took aim at the U.S. and Israeli decision to strike Iran, accusing the Republican president of entering the war on behalf of Israel.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u201csaid he\u2019s been waiting 40 years to do this,\u201d Van Hollen said. \u201cIt turns out he finally found a president who was both stupid and reckless enough to join him. Let\u2019s face it, Mr. Secretary, the Trump foreign policy has become a dumpster fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio\u2019s testimony, which was taking place as Israel and Lebanon began a new round of political talks at the State Department with the situation between Israel and Hezbollah still uncertain, did not provide definitive answers on any of the main questions of the day.<\/p>\n
He said Iran is not guaranteed a massive payout for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway for global oil shipments, and would have to commit to further concessions on its nuclear program to get significant sanctions relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more they give, the more they would get,\u201d he said, later adding, \u201cThey\u2019re not going to get it as a signing bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio also said there are indications that Iran\u2019s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is taking a bigger part in the discussions despite not being seen publicly since the war began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Democratic senator says drugs being on boats isn\u2019t a targeting criterion for U.S. strikes<\/p>\n
On other issues, Rubio dismissed questions about the legality of Pentagon strikes against dozens of alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, which have killed more than 200 people since early September.<\/p>\n
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said the military\u2019s targeting criteria for those strikes does not include drugs being present on the boat. He called it \u201codd\u201d but said he could not share much more because the criteria are classified.<\/p>\n
Rubio pushed back, saying every strike has a legal officer who makes a determination on whether a strike is legal. He also said the U.S. military has \u201cwalked away from strikes\u201d multiple times because they did not meet the targeting criteria.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration says the U.S. is at war with drug cartels, while many Democrats have questioned the legality and effectiveness of the strikes.<\/p>\n
The Republican former senator faces a second congressional hearing Tuesday and a pair of others Wednesday about the State Department\u2019s annual budget request, though questions have mostly focused on top foreign policy issues.<\/p>\n
Rubio wades into Taiwan arms sales opposed by China<\/p>\n
Rubio acknowledged that the Trump administration is holding up a new potential $14-billion arms sale to Taiwan but said it remained under consideration and would not be canceled. He noted that the U.S. recently sold arms to Taiwan in December worth $11 billion.<\/p>\n
He said the deal is not under review because of pressure from China, although he said the Chinese bring up the issue in discussions with the United States. Trump also has described it as a great negotiating chip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are constantly talking about Taiwan arms sales, but that in no way is what is holding up our decision-making or the White House\u2019s decision-making,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cIt is something the president will have to decide on the timing of when and how that is executed on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protesters chant at Rubio about Cuba<\/p>\n
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also was questioned about the Trump administration\u2019s escalatory behavior toward Cuba, as Trump has hinted that the small island country could be the next U.S. target after operations in Iran are wrapped up.<\/p>\n
He faced chants from protesters who urged him to \u201cstop killing Cubans\u201d when he entered the Senate briefing room. The protesters were quickly pulled from the room. Their chants also included \u201cLet Cuba live!\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio defended the administration\u2019s approach to Cuba and said it would remain focused on changing the Cuban government\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t believe this system is capable of reform unless new people take over or a new mindset takes hold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite a series of meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials, Trump and Rubio have renewed threats against the island\u2019s government, which take on greater weight following the administration\u2019s announcement of criminal charges against former President Ra\u00fal Castro.<\/p>\n
Over his congressional career and now as America\u2019s top diplomat, Rubio has maintained that Cuba is a national security threat due to its ties to U.S. adversaries, and that Trump is intent on addressing it.<\/p>\n
Amiri, Lee and Finley write for the Associated Press. Amiri reported from New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he is optimistic about the potential for a resumption in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[45480,46765,1682,1275,34,37,46768,46767,46764,14381,10203,46766,309,46763,36],"class_list":["post-142925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-approach","tag-criterion","tag-cuba","tag-democrats","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-legality","tag-main-question","tag-pentagon-strike","tag-protester","tag-rubio","tag-sen-chris-van-hollen","tag-trump-administration","tag-u-s-agency","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116683631676466545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}