Rubio said European and Asian countries that benefit from trade through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital choke point largely blocked by Iran, should contribute to efforts to secure free passage.
While he said the US could achieve its aims without ground troops, he acknowledged it was deploying some to the region “to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust the contingencies, should they emerge”.
Washington has dispatched two contingents of thousands of Marines to the region, the first of which is due to arrive in the coming days on a huge amphibious assault ship. The Pentagon is also expected to deploy thousands of elite airborne soldiers.
The deployments have raised concerns that the war could turn into a prolonged ground battle.
MORE STRIKES WHILE TRUMP SPEAKS OF NEGOTIATIONS
Stock markets tumbled sharply on Friday while the Brent crude oil benchmark topped US$112, having risen more than 50 per cent since the war began.
In the US, where Trump is politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices, diesel in California hit a record average high of US$7.17 a gallon, the American Automobile Association said.
Trump has appeared eager to wind down the unpopular war, emphasising this week what he called productive negotiations aimed at a diplomatic solution – despite repeated assertions from Tehran that no such talks have begun. On Thursday, Trump extended a deadline by 10 days for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks against its civilian energy grid.
While those strikes were on hold, missiles and drones continued to rain down across the region.
An Iranian attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia wounded 12 US military personnel, two seriously, a US official told Reuters on Friday, as drones and missiles continued to strike around the Gulf.
Israel’s military said on Saturday it had detected incoming missiles from Iran, and Syrian state television reported explosions heard above the capital Damascus from Israeli intercepts of the Iranian missiles.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also reported missile attacks early on Saturday, with five people injured and fires reported after a missile was intercepted near Abu Dhabi’s KEZAD economic zone.
At least five people were killed and seven injured after a US-Israeli attack on a residential unit in Iran’s northwestern city of Zanjan, Iranian media reported early on Saturday. The Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran was also struck, media reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X that Israel, in coordination with the US, had also hit two steel factories and a power plant. “Attack contradicts POTUS extended deadline for diplomacy. Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” Araqchi said on Friday, using an acronym for the president of the United States.