Friday 22 / May / 2026
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke about the negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the war, saying "slight progress" had been made.
Negotiators saw "a little bit of movement and that's good," Rubio said, adding that conversations were ongoing.
Rubio spoke following a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Sweden.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to carry out an extensive military operation against Iran should negotiations not bear fruit.
Fighting in the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes at the end of February, halted in April as part of a ceasefire agreement while talks for a lasting peace continue.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that a "Plan B" may be required to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the United States and Iran fail to reach a deal in their ongoing war.
"We all would love to see an agreement with Iran in which the straits are open and they abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions. That's what we would all hope for and that's what we're going to continue to work on," Rubio told reporters in Helsingborg, Sweden, following a meeting with fellow NATO foreign ministers.
"But, we also have to have a Plan B. What if Iran refuses to open the straits? What if Iran decides: 'We're going to own the straits, and we're going to charge tolls for it?' At that point, something has to be done about it. They're not just going to voluntarily open the straits."
Rubio said he'd "raised that point today" and "got a lot of nods" from other NATO foreign ministers since "there are other countries here today which would be more deeply impacted by that than even the United States.
"I don't know if it would be a NATO mission, but there would certainly be NATO countries which could contribute," he said.
