The United States (US) will either have a good agreement with Iran or deal with the country “another way,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, as Washington played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough in the three-month-old war. Rubio told reporters in New Delhi that America would give diplomacy every chance to succeed before exploring “alternatives”, after President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had told his representatives not to rush into any Iran deal. There was a “pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the Strait, get the Strait open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter, and hopefully we can pull it off,” Rubio said. A day earlier, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the US blockade on Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz would “remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed”. He added, “Both sides must take their time and get it right.” There was no immediate response from Iran’s government. But the Tasnim news agency, linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said America was still obstructing parts of a potential deal, including Tehran’s demand for the release of frozen funds. Oil prices fell 6% to two-week lows on Monday, as optimism grew that the United States and Iran were moving closer to a peace deal. Trump raised expectations of an imminent deal on Saturday when he said Washington and Tehran had “largely negotiated” a memorandum of understanding on a peace agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Before the conflict, the critical waterway had carried a fifth of global shipments of oil and liquefied natural gas. The two sides remain at odds on several difficult issues, such as Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Israel’s war in Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia and Tehran’s demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks. Related video | US-Iran war | US targets Iran infrastructure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VefLPtAGSTk