US and Iran not close to any breakthrough - Rubio

No progress has been made at the U.S.-Iran talks, and the two sides are not close to any breakthrough there, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said before flying for a G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Paris.

"I don’t have any progress [in talks with Iran] to report to you. I think you see some of these things that are out there. You have a number of countries that continue to engage with them with different ideas, but I wouldn’t say we’re on the verge of a breakthrough," Rubio said.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration prefer to solve any conflicts, including with Iran, diplomatically, he argued.

"The president would always prefer to solve this and every problem diplomatically. Sometimes that’s not possible, unfortunately, but if there’s a chance to do it, we’ll explore it," Rubio said.

He dismissed Iran’s demands to the U.S. as unacceptable and even unrealistic.

"Right now, it [the negotiation process with Iran] hasn’t been very productive because the Iranian demands are simply not just unacceptable, but in some cases outrageous and ridiculous, and really not realistic," Rubio maintained.