US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that Iran's efforts to implement a tolling system were "illegal" and that officials from Pakistan planned to travel to Iran as part of ongoing diplomatic efforts surrounding Iran negotiations.
Rubio made the remarks during a press interaction before departing for official visits to Sweden and India.
Responding to a question on Iran's negotiations with Oman to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz, Rubio said the US has always opposed it.
"We've always said a tolling system in the Strait would be unacceptable. But we don't just say that, the world has said that," Rubio said.
He said the US delegation had discussed Iran's tolling system plan in China during Trump's visit last week.
"We were in China last week. We mentioned this about the tolling and they're against it. No one in the world is in favor of a tolling system. It can't happen. it would be unacceptable," Rubio said.
He called the move "illegal," and added that it would make a peace deal "unfeasible."
"It would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible if they were to continue to pursue that. So it's a threat to the world if they were trying to do that. And it's completely illegal by the way," Rubio said.
Rubio said a Pakistani delegation would head to Iran on Thursday to follow up on peace deal efforts. "I believe the Pakistanis will be traveling to Tehran today [Thursday], so hopefully that will advance this further," Rubio said.
He added that the Trump administration still prefers a diplomatic agreement with Iran while speaking to reporters ahead of his departure to Sweden.
"The president's preference is to do a good deal, that's his preference... If we can get a good deal done, that would be great," Rubio said.
He added that the administration remains cautious about recent progress in talks with Tehran. "There's some good signs, but we understand this. I don't want to be overly optimistic as well. So, let's see what happens over the next few days," Rubio said.
Rubio said the US wants India to increase purchases of American oil and gas supplies as Hormuz instability disrupts markets.
"We want to sell them as much energy as they'll buy, and obviously you've seen, I think we're at historic levels of US production and US export. We want to be able to do more," Rubio said.
He also pointed to Venezuelan oil as another potential source for India's future energy imports.
"We also think there's opportunities with Venezuelan oil. In fact, it's my understanding that the interim president of Venezuela will be traveling to India next week as well," Rubio said.
On the current situation in Cuba, Rubio said the country's energy system continues deteriorating despite years of subsidized Venezuelan crude supplies.
"They had major blackouts last year, and they were still getting free Venezuelan oil. They haven't spent a penny in fixing their energy production, their electrical grid," Rubio said.
Rubio alleged that Cuban authorities were diverting public funds instead of investing in power infrastructure improvements.
"They have a private military company named Gaiser, who's sitting on $18 billion of assets, and not a penny of that transfers over to the state budget," Rubio said.