‘President Trump open to meeting Ali Khamenei’: Secretary of State Marco Rubio

New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that he has considered President Doland Trump’s decision to send a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East as a bid to make sure Iran doesn’t “come after us and trigger something larger beyond that,” as he refused to say if the US was running out of patience with the regime in Tehran.

‘Trump’s preference is a deal with Iran’

He said Trump’s preference was for a deal with Iran and also left the door open to Trump meeting Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Nation states need to interact with one another – I serve under a president that’s willing to meet with anybody. I’m pretty confident in saying that if the Ayatollah said tomorrow, he wanted to meet with President Trump, the president would meet him, not because he agrees with the Ayatollah, but because he thinks that’s the way you solve problems in the world,” he said while talking to Bloomberg.

Marco Rubio warns Europe

Marco Rubio has also made a warning in the interview that Europe’s leaders must return to the traditions and values they share with the US while seeking to reassure allies about Washington’s commitment to the continent.

“We want Europe to prosper because we’re interconnected in so many different ways, and because our alliance is so critical. But it has to be an alliance of allies that are capable and willing to fight for who they are and what’s important.

“What is it that binds us together? Ultimately, it’s the fact that we are both heirs to the same civilisation, and it’s a great civilisation. It’s one we should be proud of,” Rubio told Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.

On the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war, Rubio said he believes President Vladimir Putin’s war aims have changed and he now only wants to take the 20% of the Donetsk region that his forces don’t now occupy.

(With Bloomberg Inputs)