US says it will 'take a couple days to settle on' text to end Iran war

An agreement to end the US-Israeli war on Iran will "take a couple days" to finalize even as the parties inch closer to agreement on what it should look like, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.

"I think there's strong alignment and agreement on what a preliminary draft should look like. I think, like anything with something like this, it's going to take a couple days to settle on, even down to the disagreements over a word, sentence," Rubio, who also doubles as President Donald Trump's national security adviser, told reporters en route to New Delhi.

"If there's going to be a deal, we're going to have to work through that, but this is, you know, it's either going to be a good deal, or there isn't going to be one," he added.

Rubio continued to criticize Iran's efforts to shutter the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, saying it is "unlawful, it's illegal, it's unsustainable."

"There's no country in the world that's in favor of the tolling system, except the regime in Iran. So that's not acceptable. That cannot happen," he said. "The straits need to be open, unimpeded, without tolls, and obviously that needs to happen."

Regional tensions boiled over Feb. 28 when the US and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with barrages of drones and missiles that hit targets across the region as Tehran shuttered the Strait of Hormuz.

A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement. Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining a blockade on vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway. Last week, he said the deal has been "largely negotiated" and awaits finalization.