TEHRAN, Nov 11 — Top US diplomat Marco Rubio said yesterday that he saw no need to attack Iran again, as diplomatic efforts to end the war gathered steam and Tehran urged Washington to accept its demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Hours after President Donald Trump said he saw “positive momentum” towards resolving the eight-month war, Rubio said the United States’ squeezing of Iran’s economy made further attacks unnecessary.
“The economic campaign (against Iran) is so devastating that right now there is no need for major combat operations,” the secretary of state said after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris. “That’s what I told our allies here today.”
Iran’s efforts to blockade Hormuz, the major exit route for Gulf energy shipments, have sent oil prices soaring — a major factor in the humbling of Trump’s Republicans in last week’s midterm elections.
