Marco Rubio Claims U.S. Economic Pressure on Iran is Working, Sending its Economy Into ‘Complete Freefall’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S.'s economic pressure against Iran is working as it has sent its economy into "total and complete freefall."

Speaking to press during a visit to Athens, Rubio went on to say that Tehran has "lost complete control" of the Strait of Hormuz and is unable to prevent ships from going through the waterway.

"The Strait of Hormuz is open. There's almost as much oil flowing out now as there was before this conflict began," he added.

The official then reiterated that Washington's condition to end the war is preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, a claim that was echoed by Vice President JD Vance. Speaking to Reuters, Vance said that if Iran wants to "show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their ​enrichment capacity."

"If you don't want a nuclear weapon, then why ​do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don't build highly enriched ⁠fuel. That's a very basic threshold issue," he added.

The Iranian economy does appear to be taking a large hit from the U.S.'s latest measures. Iranian state television claimed that Mohsen Paknejad, who has served as oil minister since August 2024, tendered his resignation over the past days.

The development came as the Iranian oil industry faces unprecedented challenges. Homayoun Falakshahi, the head of crude oil analysis at market intelligence platform Kpler, reported on Thursday that Iran had loaded no oil whatsoever at its export terminals in September, marking the first time Iran's oil loadings had completely stopped since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

When revenue from Iranian oil still at sea dries up, which is expected to happen by the end of the year as the final payments could be collected as late as December, the Iranian regime would have to do without what it has always been its primary source of hard currency.

Negotiations continue to be stalled. In a wide-ranging interview with TIME Magazine last week, President Donald Trump said the U.S. "created peace in the world" by "annihilating Iran."

"With Iran, I don't think you could ever have peace," Trump added. He went on to recall that the Tehran regime killed "75,000 people in the last number of months" to quash protests.

"It's unbelievable. It's a bloodbath. So we'll see. And the reason people don't rise up, because they're afraid of being killed. You know, they go out in the street and they end up killing 1,000 people, 2,000," Trump said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, on his end, said talks with the U.S. are meaningless after the latest round of talks failed to yield results.

Speaking to Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Tehran, Pezeshkian said Tehran's "problem with the United States is that every time we come to the negotiating table, war is immediately imposed on us."

"So far, they have attacked us three times after talks, and this shows that they are not seeking dialogue," he added.