Iran live updates: Rubio dismisses Iran peace proposal, stresses nuclear issue

President Donald Trump wrote, without citing evidence, on social media on Tuesday that "Iran has just informed us that they are in a 'State of Collapse.'"

Trump said Iran is asking for the U.S. to lift the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz "as soon as possible."

Trump added that this alleged request from Iran comes as the nation tries "o figure out their leadership situation," which he said he "believe(s) they will be able to do!"

Trump has repeatedly expressed mixed messages about Iran's leadership, insisting that regime change has occurred, while also claiming that the U.S. does not know who Iran's leaders are.

-ABC News' Emily Chang

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post to X on Monday that Iran's oil industry is "creaking" under the pressure of the U.S. naval blockade, predicting that the country's ability to pump oil "will soon collapse."

"While the surviving IRGC Leaders are trapped like drowning rats in a sewage pipe, Iran's creaking oil industry is starting to shut in production thanks to the U.S. BLOCKADE," Bessent wrote.

"Pumping will soon collapse. GASOLINE SHORTAGES IN IRAN NEXT!" he added.

Speaking to a reporter in St. Petersburg during his visit to Russia, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the U.S. had achieved none of its goals and was therefore asking for negotiations -- a request Araghchi said Iran is "considering."

Regarding bilateral Iranian-Russian relations, Araghchi said the two countries are "strategic partners" and that cooperation between them would continue.

Speaking to Fox News in an interview published on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that competing groups of "hardliners" in Iran are complicating stalled peace talks with the U.S.

"They're all hardliners in Iran. But there are hardliners who understand they have to run a country and an economy and there are hardliners that are completely motivated by theology," Rubio said.

"The hardliners that are motivated by theology are not just the (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) officials, but obviously the supreme leader and the council that surrounds him," Rubio continued.

"And then you've got the political class -- the foreign minister, the president, the speaker, the majlis, these guys -- they're hardliners too, but they also understand the country has to have an economy. People have to eat. They have to figure out a way to pay salaries in their government," Rubio said.

"Unfortunately, the hardliners, with an apocalyptic vision of the future, have the ultimate power in that country," Rubio added.