Negotiators could wrap a framework in a matter of days, Marco Rubio said on Tuesday, after US forces carried out strikes on missile launch sites and boats in southern Iran on Monday. Rubio spoke to reporters in Jaipur during a visit to India and warned that the Strait of Hormuz must be kept open. The strikes, described by US Central Command as self-defence, targeted sites and boats that CENTCOM said were attempting to emplace mines. Negotiators remain in Doha and Rubio said the precise wording of an initial document will require detailed back-and-forth.
Rubio said the talks taking place in Doha were focused on the text of an initial document and that the detailed drafting would take time. "It will take a few days," he told reporters, adding that "the president's expressed his desire to make it. He's either going to make a good deal or no deal." He also warned that the strait has to be open "one way or the other," a reference to the vital shipping lane at the centre of regional tensions.
US military says strikes were self-defence
United States Central Command said in a statement that US forces carried out "self-defence strikes in southern Iran" on Monday to protect troops from threats posed by Iranian forces. CENTCOM said the targets included missile launch sites and boats attempting to emplace mines, but the command gave no further operational details.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported several loud explosions in the vicinity of Bandar Abbas at about midnight local time, which is 20:30 GMT on Monday. There was no immediate official reaction from Tehran confirming or denying the US account, and Iranian officials had not provided details of the incident.
A CENTCOM spokesman, Tim Hawkins, delivered the military statement. Adam Clements, a former US diplomat and Pentagon official, said he was not surprised the United States acknowledged the strikes. He argued tactical operations need to be kept separate from the strategic diplomatic process and added he didn't expect the attacks to derail formal negotiations.
Iran’s top negotiators, including the foreign minister, were in Doha for discussions with Qatar’s prime minister on a potential framework to end the conflict.
Sources briefed on the visit said talks centred on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and on Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The briefings said Iran’s central bank governor attended part of the meetings to discuss the possible release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told officials and interlocutors that nuclear issues would only be negotiated after the framework accord was agreed, reflecting Tehran’s insistence on sequencing.
The timing of the US strikes, and the choice to make the operation public, shows the difficult choreography between battlefield actions and diplomatic effort. Rubio and others in Washington are evidently trying to signal firmness about maritime freedom while preserving a diplomatic lane in Doha.
Alongside the strikes, Iran’s own reporting said Tehran had downed a "hostile" stealth drone using a new air defence system, though the reports didn't specify the drone’s origin. In Washington, former president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that talks with Iran were going "nicely" while warning of further attacks if negotiations failed.
The regional security picture is crowded. Israel announced it would intensify strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The Israeli military reported attacks on Hezbollah infrastructure in the Bekaa Valley and elsewhere, a reminder that whatever is decided in Doha will play out against a backdrop of interlocking confrontations across the Levant and the Gulf.
For negotiators in Doha, the challenge is procedural as much as political. Rubio stressed that the text of an initial framework needs detailed back-and-forth, which is why he expected the process to take days. That phrasing signals a hope for rapid progress but also acknowledges that tricky technical issues remain on the table, from uranium quantities to sanctions language and the mechanics of releasing frozen assets.
Diplomacy in this phase is necessarily granular. The presence of Iran’s central bank governor at part of the talks suggests financiers and negotiators are trying to align on steps that would follow any political framework. At the same time, public military actions and statements will test the tolerance of each side for parallel pressure and negotiation.
Rubio’s comments, and CENTCOM’s acknowledgement of the strikes, make clear that Washington wants to press a two-track approach: keep pressure on military threats while keeping a diplomatic process open in Doha. For now the immediate arithmetic is simple.
The negotiators are still in Qatar, and the document on the table needs precise wording. That, Rubio said, will take a few days.
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What to watch next: whether negotiators in Doha can finalise precise wording in the coming days, how Tehran responds to the publicised strikes, and whether any release of frozen funds follows a signed framework.
This article was created with AI assistance.
