Rubio says US open to meeting Iran at UN, no meeting scheduled yet
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday Washington was open to hold talks with Iranian officials during the UN General Assembly, although no meeting had been arranged.
“We’re open to that. I don’t think anything is scheduled at this point, but we’re certainly open to something like that,” Rubio told NBC’s “Today” show.
He said President Donald Trump was generally willing to meet other leaders if engagement could help resolve problems.
“This is a president that will meet with anybody for the most part because he believes that engaging with people is important if you’re going to solve problems,” Rubio said. “Doesn’t mean you’re going to end up agreeing with them, but it’s important.”
Rubio said Washington would welcome talks if they could lead to what he described as a positive outcome.
“And that is the fact that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. They just simply can’t,” he said.
Rubio described Iran’s leadership as a “radical clerical regime” and accused Tehran of causing damage across the Middle East through its allied groups.
“If we can achieve that outcome in a positive way, we’d love to do it,” he said.