JAIPUR, May 26 — United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that negotiating a deal with Iran could "take a few days," quashing hopes for an imminent end to the conflict a day after US forces conducted what Washington called defensive strikes in southern Iran.
Describing the strikes against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, he said the Strait of Hormuz has to be open "one way or the other."
"The straits have to be open; they are going to be open one way or the other, so they need to be open," he told the media on his plane in India's Jaipur on Tuesday.
Despite a ceasefire in place since early April, the US Central Command said in a statement on Monday that it had carried out fresh strikes designed "to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces."
On the same day, Iranian news agencies reported that Tehran had downed a "hostile" stealth drone using a new air defence system, without saying where it had come from.
The US attacks came as Iran's top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar's prime minister on a potential deal with the US to end the three-month-old war, according to an official briefed on the visit.
Earlier, Rubio told the media in New Delhi that the US would give diplomacy every chance to succeed before considering whether to deal with Iran in "another way".
He added that there was a "pretty solid thing on the table," referring to talks over reopening the strait and a "very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter."
In a lengthy post on Truth Social on Monday, US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran were going "nicely", but warned of fresh attacks if they failed.
It "will only be a Great Deal for all, or no Deal at all," he wrote.
In another indication of the region's tensions, on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they would intensify strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Israel's military soon thereafter said it was attacking Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and other areas.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire in mid-April, but Israel has continued airstrikes it says are acts of self-defence against Hezbollah, which was not party to the truce.
Doha talks
The official briefed on the Iranians' Doha visit told Reuters that the discussions focused on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, while Iran's central bank governor attended to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that nuclear issues would only be negotiated after the framework accord was agreed.
Trump has stated that his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran has consistently denied it has plans to do that.
Baghaei said the potential Iran deal contained no specific details on management of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas usually flows.
Iran would not charge tolls for ships passing through, but there would be a cost for services offered, such as navigation and environmental protection measures, under a protocol to be agreed with Oman, which lies on the opposite shore of the waterway.
paper reported that the US and Iran were discussing a plan to open the strait about 30 days after reaching a deal to end hostilities.
Since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, only a few dozen vessels have been passing through the Strait of Hormuz compared with 125 to 140 daily previously.
The stand-off has caused a spike in oil prices and driven up the costs of fuel, fertiliser and food.
In early Asian trade on Tuesday, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up slightly from Monday's last traded price but down 5.5 per cent from Friday's close.
