US making progress with Iran on Strait of Hormuz, but Trump remains cautious, says Rubio
NEW DELHI, May 25: President Donald Trump is a big fan of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, seeking to dismiss allegations of rising anti-India rhetoric in the US.
The top diplomat’s remarks on Monday came against the backdrop of a swirling controversy after the video of his response to a reporter’s question on Sunday on instances of alleged racism towards Indians in the US went viral.
Though the reporter did not clarify, many saw his question as a reference to Trump’s remarks referring to India along with China as a “hellhole” appearing to accuse people from the two countries of abusing America’s birthright citizenship.
The US Secretary of State is currently on a four-day trip to India that is aimed at recalibrating the bilateral relations that have faced headwinds since mid-last year.
“The President is a big fan of India, a big fan of Prime Minister Modi. I wouldn’t be here if the President didn’t want me to be here. He wouldn’t have sent someone like Sergio (Gor) to be our ambassador, someone who’s very close to the President,” Rubio said.
Rubio said this when a journalist this morning asked about the controversy and suggested that perhaps the reporter on Sunday was referring to President Trump’s controversial comments against Indians.
Interestingly, the US State Department posted Rubio’s remarks in response to the racism question along with other comments on ‘X’. But hours later, deleted the question.The US Secretary of State said he specifically asked the reporter whom he was referring to but he did not respond.
“The bottom line is that in the modern era, you go online, and there are people saying all kinds of crazy stuff. I don’t even know if they’re real people or who they are,” he said.
Rubio indicated that he thought the reporter was referring to comments by people online.
The reporter had asked: “There have been a lot of racist comments coming from the United States against Indians, Indian-Americans. You know this goes against the basic premise of the India-US relationship. What’s your take on that?” When Rubio asked whom he was referring to, the reporter responded by saying: “We all have seen those comments. We’ve seen endorsement of those comments.” Rubio remarked that “every country has stupid people” while responding to the question.
US-IRAN TALKS
The US has made significant progress in negotiations with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but President Donald Trump is maintaining a cautious approach and will not accept a bad deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.The remarks by the US Secretary of State, currently on a four-day trip to India, came amid indications that the US and Iran are looking at a preliminary deal to reopen the shipping lane before hammering out a comprehensive peace agreement.
“Work is still in progress. We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today,” he told a small group of reporters before leaving for Agra.“So we have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of get the Strait open, enter into a very real, significant time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matters and hopefully we can pull it off,” Rubio said The US Secretary of State said there has been global support for the ongoing efforts to end the conflict in West Asia, but added that the road to peace is not very easy.
The key sticking points in the US-Iran peace talks have been Iran’s nuclear programme and control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s energy supplies pass in normal times.
Shipping through the Strait has been severely disrupted since February 28, when the US and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran, triggering retaliatory strikes. Shipping disruptions continue even though a fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 8.
“Every country that we’ve walked through understands it’s not just very reasonable, but it’s the right thing for the world to get done. As the President said, he’s not in a hurry; he’s not going to make a bad deal,” he said.
Rubio said the US is going to give diplomacy “every chance to succeed” before exploring “alternatives”.
“The President is not going to make a bad deal. No one has been more serious about the threat of a nuclear Iran than President Trump has been.” “And so I’m very confident that we should all be very confident that we’re either going to have a good agreement or we’re going to have to deal with it another way,” he said.“We’d prefer to have a good agreement,” he said.Rubio, addressing a press conference after holding wide-ranging talks with EAM Jaishankar, said on Sunday that there is a possibility of “good news” coming in the next few hours. (PTI)
