Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave the SFRC (Senate Foreign Relations Committee) his first testimony since the war began, on 2 June. He laid out the US order of operations under oath: the Strait of Hormuz reopens first, then 30, 60 or 90-day technical talks on cutting or cancelling enrichment1. Reopening alone buys Tehran nothing. "We have not offered Iran any sanctions relief" for that first step, Rubio told the committee2.
The sequence answers a question the war has dodged for three months, which side moves first. Washington wants the strait open before the centrifuges are discussed, and the same week it cut the IRGC's stablecoin toll rail through OFAC, the demand to reopen Hormuz is the diplomatic face of that financial squeeze. Iran must give up the chokepoint leverage before it gains anything at the table.
Rubio also gave the first US read on the Supreme Leader's channel. Mojtaba Khamenei "appears increasingly engaged, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries"3. On the 440.9 kg enriched uranium stockpile, Rubio offered no new custody plan: it is, he said, "still buried deep in a mountain somewhere"4. Washington has a sequence and a read on Tehran's top channel, but no answer yet on where the uranium goes.
