ATHENS: Iran has "lost complete control" of the Strait of Hormuz, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday, adding that Tehran's economy was "in total and complete freefall".
"The Straits of Hormuz are open. There's almost as much oil flowing out now as there was before this conflict began. So they've lost complete control of the Straits," Rubio told reporters during a visit to Athens.
He argued that as a result of "crippling" sanctions, the Iranian economy was "about to reach a place few countries in the world have been".
Every dollar received by the "radical Shia clerics" is spent on Hezbollah and Hamas, he said.
"Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, simple, period, end of story," Rubio said.
"And anything they agree to that would be acceptable to the United States has to be something that ensures that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon."
He argued that what Iran "was trying to do was build up a conventional capability so massive that they would become untouchable".
Rubio is in Athens on Wednesday ahead of a "strategic dialogue" with the NATO member on regional and energy security, the State Department said.
The wars in Iran and Ukraine have laid bare the fragility of energy supply chains, and Greece is positioning itself to become a key hub in southeastern Europe for natural gas transport.
Rubio, who arrived from Iceland on Tuesday, is set to meet Greek leaders including Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis.
"Greece is a very important US ally," Rubio told reporters ahead of the visit.
"It's a place that we have not just a military presence but strong economic ties," he said.
The highlight of Rubio's visit is set to be his address from the Pnyx, a hill near the Acropolis that is the parliamentary assembly of ancient Athenian democracy.
"Secretary Rubio will deliver an address from the birthplace of Western civilisation, where he will call upon Americans and Europeans alike to join together in a great renewal of the Western spirit, an inheritance stretching from Athens and Rome to Christendom to the founding of the American Republic," Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson told reporters.
