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Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to reject Iran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without a nuclear deal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to convey the Trump administration's rejection of Iran's proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz without a nuclear deal, saying that is the main reason for hostilities.

The proposal in question would leave nuclear negotiations for a later stage, bypassing the most sticking point of talks between the countries. Tehran's argument is that such conversations would allow for a deal to be reached more quickly.

Speaking with Fox News, Rubio said that the "nuclear question is the reason why we're in this in the first place."

He went on to say that any agreement would need to be one that "definitively prevents them from sprinting toward a nuclear weapon at any point."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also appeared to back the approach, telling press that President Donald Trump's "red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well."

Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council will also hold a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the proposal, two Gulf officials told NBC News.

Trump has also expressed his intention to continue with the blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz to choke Tehran's finances and inventories. "They say they only have about three days before that happens," he said on Monday. Intelligence platform Kpler said Iran has remaining storage for a period between 12 and 22 days.

Negotiations continued to be deadlocked during the weekend. Trump cancelled a trip from special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan on Saturday after Araghchi left the country without meeting them.

"I see no point of sending them on an 18-hour flight in the current situation. It's too long. We can do it just as well by telephone. The Iranians can call us if they want. We are not gonna travel just to sit there," Trump said.

Araghchi then returned to Pakistan for further talks, where he discussed the proposal to leave nuclear talks outside the equation. He then went to Russia, where Putin said he saw "how courageously and heroically the people of Iran are fighting for their independence" and told Araghchi that Moscow would "do everything that serves your interests and the interests of all the peoples of the region."

Originally published on IBTimes