Iran’s Supreme Leader Seems More Active as Negotiations Continue: US’s Rubio | US-Israeli war against Iran

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appeared to be taking a more active role as negotiations between the two countries continued after the April 8 truce.

Testifying before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Rubio said there were signs that Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly since U.S. airstrikes killed his father and predecessor on the first day of the war, is alive and more deeply engaged in the country’s affairs.

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“I think there are indications that he is increasingly engaging at some level, even though all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries,” the top U.S. diplomat said.

Rubio’s remarks come as Tehran considers the latest version of a US proposal to end the war, the terms of which US President Donald Trump has reportedly tightened in recent days.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency cited a source close to the country’s negotiating team as saying Tehran was still studying the latest proposal and had not communicated with the United States for several days. The official stressed that Iran was taking a “tough” approach given what it sees as the United States’ non-compliance with the ceasefire and general distrust.

Trump insists Iran talks are going on ‘continuously’

Trump has said his priorities for any deal include Iran agreeing never to develop nuclear weapons and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas reserves passed before the war.

In a social media post Tuesday, Trump disputed reports that negotiations with Iran had broken down, saying “conversations between us continue continuously.” “Where they will lead, you never know, but as I told Iran: ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a deal,'” Trump wrote in his Truth Social platform.

Speaking to lawmakers, Rubio said negotiations between the United States and Iran could now include “aspects of their nuclear program” that the country was unwilling to discuss just a month ago.

However, “this does not guarantee that this will ultimately result in an acceptable agreement,” Rubio warned.

“There is a prospect in front of us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week,” he added.

Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, said the first condition of the negotiations was that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz and also engage in negotiations over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Asked if the United States would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Rubio said that would not be enough.

“This has not been discussed. This has not been proposed,” Rubio said, adding that sanctions relief would come only after significant concessions on the nuclear program and enriched uranium.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC, said Rubio’s remarks gave the clearest indication yet of “what the negotiations are really focused on.”

“The United States doesn’t even offer carrots,” Culhane said. “He [Rubio] spoke of the stick, that they must open the Strait of Hormuz and then the Iranians must commit to getting rid of its enriched uranium and limiting future uranium.

The head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said Iran had stopped many nuclear activities that previously took place in the country. In comments cited by the Reuters news agency, Grossi said any deal to end the war with Iran should have strong verification and monitoring mechanisms.

Iran warns of ‘direct confrontation’ if Israel continues ‘aggression’ against Lebanon

The US-Israeli war against Iran which began on February 28 has left thousands dead, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. This has caused global suffering by driving up energy prices since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which previously carried about a fifth of the world’s supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas.

It also sparked the latest round of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, with Israel invading deep into Lebanon and even attacking parts of the capital Beirut.

On Tuesday, Israel continued its deadly strikes against a series of towns in southern Lebanon, despite a partial ceasefire negotiated by the United States and announced the day before.

Continued Israeli attacks in Lebanon have become a major point of contention for Iran, which insists that a full ceasefire in Lebanon must be part of any deal with Washington.

Iranian Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said he told Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that if “Israeli aggression against Lebanon continues,” Tehran would “not only stop the path of negotiations” with the United States, “but we would also be in direct confrontation with the enemy.”

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