Rubio rejects latest Iran ceasefire proposal

Planned talks in Pakistan during a ceasefire in the US-Israeli conflict failed to materialise this weekend as the impasse continues.

On the nuclear issue, a key sticking point in the talks, he said: “There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future if this radical clerical regime remains in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon.

“That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here.”

The diplomatic path remains fragile. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said Tehran is in no rush to negotiate. He travelled to Saint Petersburg yesterday to meet with President Putin, and said Tehran is still considering Trump’s request for talks.

Meanwhile, the United States and Iran clashed at the United Nations yesterday over Tehran's nuclear programme and its selection to be one of dozens of vice ‌presidents at a month-long conference to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which came into force in 1970.

The conference chair, Vietnam's UN ambassador Do Hung Viet, said Iran was picked to be among 34 representatives by "the group of non-aligned and other states."

Christopher Yeaw, assistant secretary for the US Bureau of ⁠Arms Control and Nonproliferation, told the conference that Iran's selection was an "affront" to the NPT, "beyond shameful and an embarrassment to the credibility of this conference."

Iran has long barred UN inspectors from its facilities and refused to cooperate with the UN watchdog. Yeaw said it was "indisputable that Iran has long demonstrated its contempt for the non-proliferation commitments of the NPT”.

Reza Najafi, Tehran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the meeting: “It is indefensible that the United States, as the only state ever to have used nuclear weapons, and the one that continues to expand and modernise its nuclear arsenal... seeks to position itself as ‌an arbitrator ⁠of the compliance.”