New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday (May 24) signalled that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be announced within hours, while delivering a sustained public broadside against Iran with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar standing beside him.Speaking at a joint press conference in New Delhi on the second day of his four-day India visit, Rubio said negotiations involving the United States, Gulf partners and Iran had advanced substantially and that there was now “the possibility that over the next few hours, the world will get some good news”.His remarks followed US President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social on Saturday evening that a “Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE” had been “largely negotiated” and that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened. Trump said he had spoken with leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, and separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump wrote.According to a report in Axios, citing a US official, the draft MOU envisions a 60-day ceasefire extension. During that period, the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened with no tolls and Iran would clear the mines it has laid in the waterway. In exchange, the US would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports and issue sanctions waivers to allow Iran to sell oil freely. Negotiations on curbing Iran’s nuclear programme would take place during the 60-day window, though the nuclear issue itself would not be resolved as part of the initial agreement.Diplomatic activity around the crisis has intensified over the weekend, with Gulf states, led by Qatar, engaged in mediation efforts while Pakistan army chief Asim Munir also travelled to Tehran.Rubio said “significant progress” had been made, while cautioning that negotiations were still unfinished. “I’m always cautious when I say that, because you can agree to things on paper, they actually have to be implemented”.Criticism within Trump administration The emerging deal has already drawn criticism from within Trump’s own party. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for denying Iran access to money rather than offering sanctions relief, while Senator Lindsey Graham warned that if the agreement amounted to conceding that the Strait of Hormuz “cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism”, Tehran would emerge as the dominant force in the region.In answer to a question about these criticisms, Rubio dismissed them. “There is no one who has been stronger on this issue than President Trump”. “The idea that somehow this president, given everything he’s already proven he’s willing to do, is going to somehow agree to a deal that ultimately winds up putting Iran in a stronger position when it comes to nuclear ambitions is absurd,” he added. “That’s just not going to happen.”‘Leading sponsor of terrorism’Even while projecting optimism over the negotiations, Rubio delivered an extended verbal attack on Iran in remarks that repeatedly defended recent US military operations and portrayed Tehran as a global destabilising force. He repeatedly described Iran as “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism”.Rubio accused Tehran of threatening international shipping, sponsoring militant groups across the region and attempting to normalise attacks on maritime commerce.He defended the objectives of Operation Epic Fury, saying the US had set out to destroy Iran’s navy, reduce its ballistic missile capability and damage its defence industrial base. “Those objectives were achieved,” he said. Iran’s navy, he added, now “resides at the bottom of the ocean.”He did not directly address the question about the timing of the initial strikes, which fell on a Saturday morning when a number of schools were hit by missiles, including one in Minab where 120 schoolchildren were killed.Even before the press conference, the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi had issued a statement on Sunday rejecting Rubio’s remarks from the previous day, when the State Department readout of his meeting with Modi said the US would not let Iran “hold the global energy market hostage.”The embassy turned the language back on Washington, saying that “what has held the global energy market hostage over recent years has been the unlawful and unjust sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran’s oil exports.” It accused the US and Israel of attempting to “distort the realities of the region” and of threatening maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz through “military, provocative, and adventurist actions,” and claimed that Iran’s armed forces remained in “full readiness” to respond to any threat.India’s standJaishankar did not respond directly as Rubio launched into an extended attack on Iran, including the description of Tehran as the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, a formulation New Delhi generally reserves for Pakistan. Instead, the Indian foreign minister repeatedly framed India’s position through the lens of regional stability, strategic autonomy and energy security.Asked specifically about the conflict involving Iran, Jaishankar noted that “India would be one of the very few countries who has very good relations, very strong relations with the United States, with Israel, with Iran, and with the Gulf countries.”“So for us, the challenge in this situation is how to maintain all these relationships, how to protect our equities, how to advance our interests. And we don’t look at it as a zero-sum game. You know, we have to manage and actually take care of all these accounts,” he said.In his opening remarks, Jaishankar had laid out five principles guiding India’s approach to all current conflicts globally, including support for dialogue and diplomacy, “safe and unimpeded maritime commerce”, respect for international law, opposition to the “weaponisation of market shares and resources” and support for resilient supply chains. On the Gulf conflict specifically, he added the protection of the Indian diaspora and lower energy prices as priorities.The divergence in tone reflected India’s far greater economic exposure to instability in West Asia compared to the United States. India imports more than 80% of its energy needs and remains among the countries most vulnerable to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. More than 40% of India’s crude imports and nearly 90% of LPG supplies normally pass through the waterway. ‘Don’t want energy markets distorted’The recent disruptions have already begun feeding into domestic inflation and fuel price increases. State-run retailers raised petrol and diesel prices for the third time this month on Friday.That vulnerability was reflected in Jaishankar’s repeated focus on de-risking and diversified energy supplies.“We don’t want to see energy markets distorted, we don’t want to see energy markets constricted, because it has a cost implication,” Jaishankar said. He confirmed he had raised this with Rubio. “I certainly expressed the Indian point of view that we strongly believe that energy markets should be left to the market.”Jaishankar also stressed that India would continue diversifying energy imports and described the United States as a “very significant and reliable source” of energy alongside other suppliers.“For our energy security, it’s important we have multiple sources, large sources, dependable sources, cheap sources,” he said. He described the United States as a supplier that “fits the bill in many respects” but added, “So do some other countries.”