‘Doing business with Iran is not easy’: Marco Rubio on nuclear deal with Tehran

Secretary of State of the United States Marco Rubio He said reaching an agreement with Iran is very difficult because of the different ways in which the country’s leadership formulates policy.Speaking in Budapest alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Rubio said Iranians make policy decisions on purely theological grounds.“A deal with Iran will not be easy. I said it yesterday and I will say it again today,” he said. “We have to understand that Iran is ultimately governed by Shia clerics, radical Shia clerics, and its decision-making is governed by Shia clerics. These are the people who make policy decisions on a purely theological basis.”He added that while Washington has long acknowledged the difficulty of negotiating with Tehran, the United States will continue to try.The comments came as tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and regional tensions remain high, with diplomatic efforts aimed at preventing further escalation.When it comes to global economic security, Rubio warned against overreliance on any single country for critical commodities.“It’s not good for anyone to be dependent on one country or one economy for 90 percent of everything, especially something like critical supply chains,” he said.Rubio acknowledged concerns about over-reliance but stressed that diversification efforts were not inherently China-specific.“This is not an anti-China thing. It’s just the reality that over-reliance on a single source is not good, especially when there has been a willingness to use it as leverage in the past,” he said.Rubio, meanwhile, stressed the need for continued engagement between Washington and Beijing, saying it would be “crazy” for the United States and China not to maintain ties given China’s population size, economic power and nuclear capabilities.