Washington, Oct 7 (IANS) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Iran will never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon under US President Trump, while declining to spell out whether Washington could accept some level of uranium enrichment under a future agreement with Tehran.
Rubio was asked during a joint press conference in Athens whether recent comments by Vice President JD Vance suggested the United States could accept Iranian enrichment above zero.
“I don’t understand what the confusion is about the nuclear program. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, simple, period, and end of story,” Rubio said.
“I’m not going to go into the details about what would be acceptable or not.”
Rubio said any agreement acceptable to Washington would have to ensure that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon.
“Anything they agree to that would be acceptable to the United States has to be something that ensures that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“They will never have a nuclear weapon, period, not as long as President Trump is in office. And that, to us, is the bright line.”
Rubio said Iran had sought to build a large conventional military capability that would eventually make it difficult for other countries to act against its nuclear programme.
He argued that Tehran's objective was to accumulate enough missiles and drones to deter action against its nuclear activities by threatening countries across the Middle East and US forces in the region.
Rubio said US President Trump had refused to allow that situation to develop.
He claimed that Iran's drone manufacturing, missile capabilities, navy and air force had been severely damaged and that Tehran was now significantly weaker militarily.
Those assessments were made by Rubio and were not independently substantiated in the State Department transcript.
Rubio also pointed to US sanctions and the condition of Iran's economy as additional pressure on Tehran.
“Now they’re facing crippling sanctions. Their economy is in total and complete freefall,” he said.
He also said the Strait of Hormuz remained open and claimed Iran had “lost complete control of the straits,” with oil flows returning to levels seen before the conflict.
Rubio placed responsibility for Iran's economic difficulties on the country's leadership, accusing Tehran of directing resources towards groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis instead of domestic development.
“They should have spent their money on their people, and instead they spend their money on terrorism and on weapons,” Rubio said.
The comments came during Rubio's visit to Greece for the sixth US-Greece Strategic Dialogue, which covered defence, energy, trade, technology and regional security.
