Rubio rejects Iran reparation demand as Trump touts deal momentum
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said there was “no need” to resume strikes while negotiations were progressing.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would not pay Iran for war damages, rejecting a condition Tehran has made for a deal to end the war.
“They're demanding pallets of cash, which the president made clear is not going to happen,” Rubio told reporters after a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Paris on Tuesday.
The top US diplomat also said there is “no need” to return to major combat operations because the Trump administration's sanctions and naval blockade were imposing sufficient costs on the Iranian economy.
Rubio spoke a day after President Donald Trump said there was “positive momentum for a deal” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and constrain Iran’s nuclear program. After meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the White House Monday, Trump told reporters that the war he launched in late February was “effectively over.”
Qatar and other regional countries have urged Trump not to resume strikes and instead pursue a diplomatic settlement. Iran’s stated conditions for a deal include the lifting of the US naval blockade and sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and reparations for the damage caused by the monthslong US-Israeli bombardment.
In April, Iran’s government estimated the country had sustained at least $270 billion in direct and indirect damage since the start of the war.
“We're not going to pay,” Rubio said. “Iran is demanding reparations. They should be the ones paying reparations because they're the ones that have destabilized the region.”
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