US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says no major progress made in nuclear talks with Iran, blaming Tehran’s demands.By World Israel News StaffUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that diplomatic efforts to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran have made little progress, describing Tehran’s demands as unrealistic and suggesting that a negotiated settlement remains out of reach.Speaking to reporters at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida before departing for a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris, Rubio said several countries were continuing efforts to broker an agreement between Washington and Tehran, but that the talks had failed to produce meaningful results.“I wouldn’t say we’re on the verge of a breakthrough,” Rubio said.The secretary of state emphasized that President Donald Trump remained interested in resolving the conflict through negotiations, but warned that diplomacy might ultimately prove impossible.“The president would always prefer to solve this and every problem diplomatically,” Rubio said, acknowledging that such an outcome was not always achievable.He accused Tehran of obstructing diplomatic efforts with demands that were “outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic.”Iran has insisted that Washington meet a series of conditions before substantive nuclear negotiations can begin, including lifting US sanctions, ending the American naval blockade of Iranian ports, releasing frozen Iranian assets and providing compensation for damage inflicted during the war.Tehran has also demanded an end to hostilities across the region, including Israeli military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei said Thursday that Tehran would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz or enter negotiations until Washington accepted its conditions.Meanwhile, Qatar has continued mediating indirect contacts between the two countries, with a proposed agreement reportedly envisioning a phased lifting of American restrictions in exchange for Iranian concessions.Under one proposal described by Axios, Washington would initially lift its naval blockade and release some frozen Iranian funds, while Tehran would permit international nuclear inspectors to visit facilities damaged during the war. Iran would subsequently reopen the Strait of Hormuz, allowing broader nuclear negotiations to resume.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Tehran was awaiting Washington’s response to its latest proposal, warning that the alternative to an agreement could be renewed fighting.Rubio’s remarks came hours after Trump told CNN that another major American military offensive against Iran was unlikely if negotiations produced a sufficiently strong agreement.“It depends on whether or not they sign a very strong agreement,” Trump said, describing renewed strikes as “highly unlikely” to be necessary.Nevertheless, the president emphasized that American forces remained prepared to resume military operations if diplomatic efforts failed.Trump said three US aircraft carriers were positioned in the region and that the military had identified dozens of potential infrastructure targets inside Iran, including 38 bridges that could be destroyed within an hour.Rubio also defended Trump’s decision to launch military operations against Iran earlier this year, arguing that the administration had confronted a longstanding threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.He acknowledged that confronting difficult national security challenges was not always politically popular, but maintained that the president had acted to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.The secretary of state also warned that Washington would continue protecting American personnel and commercial shipping from threats in the region.The diplomatic standoff comes amid continued military incidents around the Strait of Hormuz, where disruptions to maritime traffic have affected global energy shipments.American forces have conducted limited strikes against Iranian military targets in recent days, while the US military said Saturday that it disabled a commercial vessel attempting to breach its blockade.The post ‘Outrageous and ridiculous’ – Rubio blasts Iranian demands, says nuke deal nowhere near breakthrough appeared first on World Israel News.