Secretary of State Says Strait of Hormuz Will Reopen Without Tolls

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened "one way or another" as the United States and Iran work through the final stage of peace negotiations. Rubio, while traveling overseas, said no country in the world supports a tolling system in the strait except for Iran.

"They’re going to be open one way or the other. So they need to be open, what’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable," he said. " He added that it could take "a couple of days" to settle on the wording of a preliminary draft.

U.S. officials said there is strong alignment on what a preliminary draft should look like. The draft would extend a ceasefire with Iran and give space for negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

U.S. forces struck missile launch sites and other targets in southern Iran on Monday. The military described the strikes as defensive to protect American troops. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei responded to the strikes by saying U.S. military bases in the Middle East will no longer be safe, according to state media.

Over the weekend, officials said countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan could join the Abraham Accords as part of any deal. The accords are a series of pacts normalizing relations between Israel and Arab or Muslim-majority nations in the region.

Israel launched a military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28 to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and constrain its missile program and support for Middle East terror proxies. Officials said the United States is squeezing Iran economically with a blockade of maritime ports.