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Secretary Rubio Takes Questions from the Press in Abu Dhabi, Jun. 23, 2026

June 23, 2026 · U.S. Department of State · 0:04:53

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio answered questions from the media in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on June 23, 2026, at the start of a Gulf tour following the weekend’s talks in Switzerland. On Iran’s public contradiction of the Vice President’s account of the inspections agreement, he was blunt: “We know what they agreed to. I don’t know why they have to say the things they say… now they’ll either do it or they won’t. And if they do, the process moves forward. And if they don’t, the President will have some decisions to make.”

The trip’s purpose, he said, was listening: “We’re really here to hear from them more than we are to talk,” so that partners’ views “are taken into account in every decision that we make” — the UAE’s partnership, he added, has been “phenomenal” over the last six months. On the peace framework, he said groundwork was laid over the previous 72 hours on a 47-year issue that no one should expect to be “solved in a day and a half.” The reconstruction fund raised by reporters would not be U.S. money, he said, and any investment opportunity depends on Iran’s leadership choosing “to be a country instead of a revolutionary movement that exports terror.” Lebanon, he insisted, is a separate track — “Lebanon is a sovereign country” whose future “belongs to the Lebanese people through their sovereign elected government” — though Iran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah belongs in the Iran conversations. Missiles and proxies, he argued, are covered by the memorandum’s end-of-hostilities terms and “will be gotten to at the appropriate time.” On Hormuz he restated the legal position: “It’s an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway.”

Why it matters

Abu Dhabi was the first Gulf stop after the Switzerland weekend, and the availability fixed the administration’s compliance test for Iran — inspections as agreed, or presidential decisions — before the Secretary carried the same message to Kuwait the next day, paged separately on this site.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Iran’s IAEA-inspections commitment as the Secretary stated it on June 23, 2026 — agreed in Switzerland, with consequences reserved if unkept. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary Rubio’s Remarks to the Press in the United Arab Emirates” (official upload, embedded above; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates). Remarks as delivered; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store; full transcript at state.gov.