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While Washington remains open to a diplomatic solution with Iran, the latter in the meantime is violating its interim agreement with the U.S. by attacking commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday night.

“The straits are supposed to be open—free of tolls, free of attacks, free of all the things they’re doing against these ships. … You can’t have a MoU [Memorandum of Understanding] that’s alive if they’re violating the terms of it,” Rubio told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before taking off for the Philippines for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.

He went on to say that the Iranian regime continues to send signals directly and through mediators that it is interested to return to the negotiating table.

But “I also think it’s growing apparent that even within their own system there’s a growing split … between those that understand that their economy is in shambles and they need to do something or they’re going to be in a lot of trouble very soon economically and domestically, and others who are very militant in their view of life and in their view of the world and continue to launch missiles,” Rubio continued.

“So they’ll have to work out that split internally. We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy, if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system or take control of the negotiations, that’ll be a very positive development. That’s not where we are tonight, unfortunately,” Rubio said,

America’s top diplomat noted that the objectives of the current military campaign are to degrade Iran’s ability to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Other countries should join us in this effort, but the United States is involved not just in protecting those ships but in targeting the places that they use to launch these missiles and drones,” he said.

Rubio stressed that Iran’s economy is in shambles, with “300% inflation, particularly on life-sustaining goods. They have dwindling revenues to meet even their own payroll. They have food shortages. They have a drought, which we didn’t cause. But they have a gasoline shortage and a fuel shortage. All these problems existed before all this began. They’ve just gotten worse. They will continue to get worse.”

He said that Iran is a rich country, but instead of directing its resources toward the benefit of its citizens, Tehran invests “every penny” in its proxy groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

“They should be spending on things like building their country. But instead, they use it to sponsor terrorism,” Rubio said.

.@SecRubio: “Iran is a rich country. One of the reason why Iran is in shambles is because every penny that this regime ever gets — be it through sanctions relief or through the oil they’re able to get out — they invest it in Hezbollah. They invest it in Hamas… They should be… pic.twitter.com/E3OrpuBAHa

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 20, 2026

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