Rubio says Trump would meet with Iran’s supreme leader ‘tomorrow’ to solve disputes

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Donald Trump would meet with Iran’s supreme leader to solve disputes between the two countries, in an interview with Bloomberg while in Munich.

“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, and he doesn’t view meeting someone as a concession,” Rubio says.

The top diplomat has said in the past that Trump is willing to meet with any world leader to resolve disputes.

Rubio is asked if Washington is running out of patience with Tehran in talks over the latter’s nuclear program, after the US announced yesterday it was sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East.

“Number one is I think it’s pretty clear that Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, that that poses a threat not just to the United States, to Europe, to world security, and to the region. There’s no doubt about it,” he replies.

“The second is we obviously want to have forces in the region because Iran has shown the willingness and the capability to lash and strike out at the United States presence in the region. We have bases because of our alliances in the region, and Iran has shown in the past that they are willing to attack us and/or threaten our bases. So we have to have sufficient firepower in the region to ensure that they don’t make a mistake and come after us and trigger something larger,” he says.

Rubio stresses, however, that Trump prefers to resolve the dispute with a deal.