U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday told lawmakers that Iran has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear programme it had long refused to discuss, opening the door to fresh talks in the wake of recent American military strikes on Tehran. Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, Rubio said Iran's conventional military shield had been significantly degraded, shifting the leverage at the negotiating table.

What Rubio told the Senate

“There is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, that, for the first time certainly in my memory, they have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear programme that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention, much less enter into discussions about,” Rubio said.

The Secretary appeared at the hearing to defend President Donald Trump's proposed State Department budget, but much of the session pivoted to Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and the administration's wider foreign policy posture.

Operation Epic Fury and the military picture

Rubio defended the recent U.S. campaign, codenamed Operation Epic Fury, saying it had crippled Iran's missile production lines and military infrastructure. “Operation Epic Fury ... was highly successful in achieving its military objectives,” he said, arguing that Tehran had sought to build a vast arsenal of missiles, drones, and naval assets to deter any external action against its nuclear sites.

“Iran's desire to build a nuclear weapon was going to be effectuated behind a conventional shield,” Rubio said. “The president chose to act to deny them that point of immunity.”

In one of the administration's sharpest damage assessments yet, Rubio declared: “Today, there is no Iranian navy. There is no such thing. There is no Iranian navy. It lies at the bottom of the ocean.”

Ceasefire, Hormuz and the blockade

Rubio said a ceasefire had been reached after the campaign but accused Tehran of reneging on a commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “They would reopen the straits. They did not,” he said. The United States, he added, responded by imposing what he described as an effective blockade on Iranian shipping. “The cost to Iran every single day in lost revenue is in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Rubio said.

Democrats push back

Opposition Democratic Senators challenged the administration's handling of the crisis. Senator Jeanne Shaheen said the State Department had failed to adequately consult Congress on key Iran decisions and questioned the broader fallout of the conflict. Committee Chairman Jim Risch, by contrast, praised the administration's approach and thanked Rubio for his role in the operation.

What happens next

Rubio acknowledged that engagement with Tehran remained difficult and often routed through intermediaries. “That is not a guarantee that ultimately it will lead to a deal that's acceptable to the Senate or acceptable to the American people,” he said. “But we will be able to engage them in a process to truly test the proposition of how far they're willing to go.” Whether that test produces a verifiable nuclear framework — or merely another pause — will shape the next phase of U.S.-Iran tensions.