Iran and U.S. play down hopes for imminent breakthrough in war

Vessels are seen anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, off the port city of Khasab on Oman's northern Musandam Peninsula on May 17, 2026. - | Afp | Iran and the United States played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough in the three-month-old war on Monday, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying there will either be a good agreement or Washington would deal with the country in "another way." Rubio told reporters in New Delhi that the U.S. would give diplomacy every chance to succeed before exploring "alternatives", after President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had told his representatives not to rush into any Iran deal. There was a "pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the strait, get the strait open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter, and hopefully we can pull it off," Rubio said. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Iran was negotiating an end to the war and was not currently discussing nuclear issues. The spokesperson added that a framework had been reached but no one could say an agreement between the United States and Iran was imminent. The potential memorandum of understanding contained no specific details about the management of the Strait of Hormuz, which belongs to the coastal countries, he said. A day earlier, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. …