QUESTION: But we begin on the international front with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We spoke to him Saturday while he was visiting Rome for Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass and asked about the outcome of the first talks between Russia and Ukraine in nearly three years. Those took place Friday in Türkiye. Vladimir Putin skipped the meeting that he himself had proposed and instead sent representatives. Ukraine's top diplomat described it as an attempt by Russia to buy time and imitate a peace process.
SECRETARY RUBIO: They were not a complete waste of time. For example, there were a thousand prisoners that are going to be exchanged, and that, from a humanitarian standpoint, is very positive. He explained to me that they are going to be preparing a document outlining their requirements for a ceasefire that will then lead to broader negotiations. So obviously the Ukrainian side is going to be working on their own proposal, and hopefully that'll be forthcoming soon.
QUESTION: You've said repeatedly it's just a matter of days, though, in terms of the waning patience that the U.S. has for this diplomacy to succeed. So are they just tapping you along as President Trump has said? Are they just seeking to continue to talk to buy time?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Are they tapping us along? Well, that's what we're trying to find out. We'll find out pretty soon. They met last - yesterday or the day before in Türkiye. From that they agreed they're going to exchange paper on ideas to get to a ceasefire. If those papers have ideas on them that are realistic and rational, then I think we know we've made progress. If those papers, on the other hand, have requirements in them that we know are unrealistic, then we'll have a different assessment.
On the one hand, we're trying to achieve peace and end a very bloody, costly, and destructive war, so there's some element of patience that is required. On the other hand, we don't have time to waste.
So we don't want to be involved in this process of just endless talks; there has to be some progress, some movement forward. Ultimately, one of the things that could help break this logjam - perhaps the only thing that can - is a direct conversation between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, and he's already openly expressed a desire and a belief that that needs to happen, and hopefully that'll be worked out soon as well.
QUESTION: You're planning on that?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don't know - we're - certainly we made the offer. The President has made that offer already publicly.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: The mechanics of setting that kind of meeting up would require a little bit of work. So I can't say that's being planned as we speak in terms of picking a site and a date, but the President wants to do it. He wants to do it as soon as feasible. I think the Russian side has also expressed a willingness to do it, and so now it's just a question of bringing them - bringing everyone together and figuring out where and when.
QUESTION: Your Senate - former Senate colleague Lindsey Graham was next to you in that meeting with the Ukrainian foreign minister. He has a veto-proof majority on this bill to put sanctions on Russia. How quickly do you want the option for more sanctions on Russia, or are you asking him to wait?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, we're not - look, the Senate is going to act, ultimately. I mean, I think in the past we've [inaudible] to give us a little time to see if we can make some progress on our talks, but we've also been pretty clear with the Russian side for weeks now, going back six or seven weeks; we've been communicating with the Russian side that this effort was being undertaken, that we anticipated that when all was said and done it would have close to 80 co-sponsors in the Senate, and I imagine a comparable percentage of support in the House, and that that was an effort we couldn't stop and don't control.
QUESTION: I want to move on to another part of the world. You've been very involved in the administration's efforts to crack down on this Venezuelan gang, TDA, that has been designated as a terror group by the U.S. Do you accept the Intelligence Community's assessment that the Venezuelan gang is not a proxy force of the Maduro government? That was the National Intelligence Council assessment.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, that's their assessment. They're wrong. One of the warnings out there by the FBI is not simply that Tren de Aragua are a terrorist organization, but one that has already been operationalized to murder a - to murder an opposition member in another country.
QUESTION: Well, that's a different thing than being a proxy force controlled by the Maduro government. Part of this is at the heart of the legal arguments the administration is having over its ability to continue to deport suspected gang members. That's why this assessment is so key. You completely reject that Intelligence Community finding?
SECRETARY RUBIO: They're - yeah, I agree 100 percent with the FBI's finding. This is a prison gang that the Venezuelan Government has actively encouraged to leave the country, a prison gang that in some cases they've been in cooperation with. And by the way, Tren de Aragua members that have been returned to Venezuela on some of these planes that have gone back have been greeted like heroes at the airport.
There's no doubt in our mind and in my mind and in the FBI's assessment that this is a group that the regime in Venezuela uses not just to try to destabilize the United States but to project power, like they did by murdering a member of the opposition in Chile.
QUESTION: South Africa's president is traveling to the United States this week to meet with President Trump. The administration has prioritized bringing some white South Africans, Afrikaners, to the United States despite the increased restrictions on refugees. President Trump claims there's a genocide underway in South Africa. That's a legal determination; the State Department would make it. Are you trying to determine that now?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I would determine that these people are having their properties taken from them. You can - they can call it whatever they want, but these are people that on the basis of their race are having their properties taken away from them and their lives being threatened, and in some cases killed. These are people that applied and made these claims in their applications, and seek to come to the United States in search of refuge. We've often been lectured by people all over the place about how the United States needs to continue to be a beacon for those who are oppressed abroad. Well, here's an example where we're doing that.
So I don't understand why people are criticizing it. I think people should be celebrating it, and I think people should be supporting it. If in fact, as many claim, they are in favor of —
QUESTION: Well, is there evidence of a genocide that you have?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I think there's evidence, absolutely, that people have been murdered, that people have been forcibly removed from their properties both by the government in some cases because of the law they passed, but also because of independent groups encouraged by political parties inside of South Africa.
So listen, to move here from half a world away and leave behind the only homeland you've ever known, that's not something people do lightly. These people are doing it for a reason. So we welcome them to the United States and I think there may be more coming soon.
QUESTION: The President says he wants to end wars, but Israel's prime minister has said he is expanding this ground operation inside of Gaza. The IDF says it's to seize strategic areas. Does the U.S. fully support expanding this war?
SECRETARY RUBIO: We expand the destruction of Hamas, the ending of Hamas. We support a future for the people of Gaza that is free of Hamas and full of opportunity. That's what we support. And this is a group that came across on October 7th and carried out one of the most vile series of attacks, kidnappings, rapes, murders, and hostage taking that we've ever seen. That's what we support.
Now, that said, we also support an end to the conflict, a ceasefire. We don't want people obviously suffering as they have, and we blame Hamas for that, but nonetheless there's suffering. And so we are actively engaged. Even as I speak to you now, we are actively engaged in trying to figure out if there is a way to get more hostages out through some ceasefire-type mechanism. Ambassador Witkoff is working on that on an hourly basis. It's something we're all very focused on and continue to be very supportive of. And I hope we'll have good news soon in that regard, but I think some impediments remain.
QUESTION: Are you asking Israel to slow down this military push? And the Qatari prime minister told Fox News that there was a deal being put together for all hostages, or many hostages, to be released after Edan Alexander, that American-Israeli, was released recently, but then the Israeli military bombed a hospital killing 70 civilians and everything went sideways. Is that your understanding of what happened?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I would say that —
QUESTION: Was this lack of care of collateral damage?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, I - the way I would characterize it is that this war could end immediately, and Israel has made that clear. It could end immediately if Hamas surrenders and gives up their weapons and demilitarizes and releases all the hostages, including the deceased ones. If they did that this conflict would end. That's been true from the very beginning. It's been true for months now. They're the ones that have chosen not to accept that offer.
QUESTION: You have said that Iran is, in your view, a threshold nuclear state and we're at a critical moment. The U.S. and Iran are talking again. Can you clarify what the U.S. policy is here? Is the bottom line that Iran cannot enrich any uranium, even if it is at low levels, for civilian purposes? Do they need to fully dismantle the program?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, if you're able to enrich at any level, you now are basically able to enrich at weapons grade very quickly. I mean, that's just a fundamental fact and everyone knows it, and that was the problem with the Obama deal. But the end goal here is simple: Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. And the President's preference - because he doesn't like war, the President's preference is to achieve that through a peaceful negotiation. He's a builder, not a bomber. That's what he views himself as, and that's what he is. He's a President that wants peace, and so he's offered that route, and that's one we hope the Iranians will take.
But he's been very clear: Iran is never going to have the capability, they're never going to have a nuclear weapon. It's not going to happen.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I know you have a busy schedule. Thank you for your time this morning.
