00:00At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage and has always been prepared to engage with Iran.
00:04As far as the topic of those discussions and what the agenda needs to be,
00:07look, I think in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful,
00:11they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles,
00:16that includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region,
00:20that includes the nuclear program, and that includes the treatment of their own people.
00:23Sponsoring terrorism, sponsoring all these proxy groups around the world,
00:28exporting, as they call it, their revolution.
00:31Secretary Rubio, can you confirm the format and location of Friday's talks with Iran
00:36and clarify, given that Iran refuses to negotiate its missile program and insists on a right to enrich uranium,
00:44is the U.S. open to a compromise, if that means reaching a deal to avoid military action?
00:49And separately, if I may, how exactly do these negotiations advance President Trump's repeated pledges
00:55to help the Iranian protesters, many of whom are likely to see these nuclear talks
00:59as legitimizing the very government that violently massacred its own people?
01:04Well, let me first say, just on the logistics, at the end, let me back up and say from a big picture perspective,
01:10I think it's pretty clear right now, President Trump is willing to talk to and meet with and engage with anyone in the world.
01:16I mean, we don't view meetings as a concession.
01:20We don't view meetings as even legitimization.
01:24It is our willingness to sit and listen and talk to anyone, any adversary, any ally, obviously,
01:31but anyone around the world.
01:32And so the President's always been open to that.
01:34He showed that in the first administration, and he's showing it again now.
01:37And so I think if there's an opportunity to engage directly with counterparts in the Iranian regime,
01:44the United States would be open to that, and that's what we're open to.
01:47We thought we had an established forum that had been agreed to.
01:50In Turkey, it was put together by a number of partners who wanted to attend and be a part of it.
01:56I saw conflicting reports yesterday from the Iranian side saying that they had not agreed to that.
02:00So that's still being worked through.
02:02At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage and has always been prepared to engage with Iran.
02:07As far as the topic of those discussions and what the agenda needs to be, look,
02:11I think in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things,
02:16and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles.
02:19That includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region.
02:23That includes a nuclear program, and that includes the treatment of their own people.
02:26The fundamental problem Iran faces and the regime faces right now is that what people are on the streets complaining about,
02:31this regime cannot address.
02:33They cannot address it because it's economic.
02:35Those problems remain.
02:37And one of the reasons why the Iranian regime cannot provide the people of Iran the quality of life that they deserve
02:42is because they're spending all their money, they're spending all their resources of what is a rich country,
02:47sponsoring terrorism, sponsoring all these proxy groups around the world,
02:53exporting, as they call it, their revolution.
02:55But I remind everybody what I've been saying through my entire career in public service.
02:59I said it in my hearing when I was asking for confirmation through the Senate.
03:04The Iranian people and the Iranian regime are very unalike.
03:08In essence, what the Iranian people want, this is a culture with a deep history.
03:13These are people that are – the leadership of Iran at the clerical level does not reflect the people of Iran.
03:20I know of no other country where there's a bigger difference between the people that lead the country and the people who live there.
03:26And so our hope resides in that.
03:27As far as the President's views on the way protesters were treated, it was very clear about it.
03:32And as you saw, part of what the President said publicly prevented mass executions that were being planned and were on the precipice of.
03:43And obviously beyond that, the President retains a number of options to how he responds to that and future events.
03:50But as far as the talks are concerned, you know, I think the Iranians had agreed to a certain format.
03:55For whatever reason, it's changed in their system or what have you.
03:57We'll see if we can get back to the right place.
03:59But the United States is prepared to meet with them.
04:01I think it was scheduled for Friday.
04:02Steve is ready to go.
04:03He'll be prepared for that.
04:04If the Iranians want to meet, we're ready.
04:06They've expressed an interest in meeting and talking.
04:08If they change their mind, we're fine with that too.
04:11We'd prefer to meet and talk.
04:12I'm not sure you can reach a deal with these guys, but we're going to try to find out.
04:15We don't see there's any harm in trying to figure out there's something that can be done.
04:19This is a President that always prefers a peaceful outcome to any conflict or any challenge.
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