U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday night that any future nuclear agreement with Iran must include American inspectors with full access to Iranian nuclear facilities — including military sites — to ensure they are not being used for weapons development.
Speaking to Fox News, Rubio stressed the importance of on-the-ground American oversight in verifying Iran’s compliance with a potential deal. “There has to be an American presence on the ground,” said Rubio, who also serves as National Security Advisor under former President Donald Trump’s administration. “You can’t say there will be no Americans. You can have French inspectors, Italian inspectors, Saudis — but Americans have to be part of it.”
Rubio said the U.S. is insisting on access to all nuclear-related sites, including military facilities that were exempt from inspection under the 2015 Obama-era nuclear deal. “One of the failures of the Obama agreement was that inspectors couldn’t check military sites — and that’s exactly where you’d build a bomb,” he said. “We know Iran had a secret program in the past that they didn’t disclose.”
Rubio emphasized that Iran has a clear path forward if it chooses diplomacy. “If Iran wants peaceful nuclear energy, they can do what many countries do — build reactors and import enriched uranium,” he said. “They claim they don’t want a bomb, yet they want to be the only non-nuclear weapons state enriching uranium.”
The level of enrichment, he said, is not the issue. “If you know how to enrich to 3.67%, you can get to 20%, 60%, and then 90% — that’s weapons-grade,” Rubio warned.
He said Iran must commit to halting enrichment, ceasing support for terrorist groups, and ending its ballistic missile program. “If they do that, they can grow their economy, attract investment. But they have to walk away from enrichment and from sponsoring terrorism.”
Rubio’s remarks come as negotiations between the U.S. and Iran remain stalled. A fourth round of indirect talks, scheduled to take place in Oman, was postponed this week. While Omani officials cited logistical reasons, the U.S. State Department said it had never confirmed participation. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce clarified, “Despite reports, the date and location for a fourth round were never finalized.”
