SECRETARY RUBIO: I think it's important to remind everybody that the Ukraine war is a terrible thing, but it's not our war. We didn't start it. The United States has been helping Ukraine for over the last three years, and we want it to end. But it's not our war. I wanted everyone to understand that. And the reason why I make that point is the President has spent 87 days at the highest level of this government repeatedly taking efforts to bring this war to an end.
We are now reaching a point where we need to decide and determine whether this is even possible or not, which is why we're engaging both sides. As you know, Ambassador Witkoff has had not one, not two, but three meetings with Vladimir Putin to determine the Russian perspective on this and understand what it would take for them to end it. We - General Kellogg, myself, and others - have had repeated engagements with the Ukrainians.
So we came here yesterday to sort of begin to talk about more specific outlines of what it might take to end the war, to try to figure out very soon - and I'm talking about a matter of days, not a matter of weeks - whether or not this is a war that can be ended. If it can, we're prepared to do whatever we can to facilitate that and make sure that it happens, that it ends in a durable and just way.
If it's not possible - if we're so far apart that this is not going to happen - then I think the President's probably at a point where he's going to say, well, we're done. We'll do what we can on the margins. We'll be ready to help whenever you're ready to have peace. But we're not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end.
So, we need to determine very quickly now - and I'm talking about a matter of days - whether or not this is doable in the - over the next few weeks. If it is, we're in. If it's not, then we'll have to - we have other priorities to focus on as well.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Michael Gordon, Wall Street Journal. The State Department said yesterday that a framework had been presented - both sides: to the Ukrainians, to the European officials, and to the Russians. What does the framework say? What issues does it resolve?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I'm not going to tell you what the framework says because when you start negotiating these things through the media and so forth, they fall apart. And it's a broad framework. It's a framework that gets us into a position to see - look, there are going to be differences; there's no - no one's saying this can be done in 12 hours. But we want to see how far apart it is and whether those differences are - can even be narrowed, if it's even possible to get movement within the period of time we have in mind.
So, we've talked about outlines with both sides. I thought we had positive meetings yesterday. Obviously, the Ukrainians have to go back home, they have to run it by their president, they have to take into account their views on all of this. And we hope to hear back from them very soon. But we need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term. Because if it's not, then I think we're just going to move on, from our perspective. The President feels very strongly about that. He has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this, and there are a lot of things going on in the world right now that we need to be focused on.
So, this is important, but there are a lot of other really important things going on that deserve just as much if not more attention. So we want to do everything we can to be helpful. We had a good meeting yesterday. I thought the French, the British, the Germans were very constructive, were very helpful. We thanked them for hosting this, and hopefully we'll have another meeting early next week at some point where we'll have some more definitive answers about how close we are to actually making progress. But this isn't going to go on forever.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Leon Bruneau, Agence France-Presse. In your conversations yesterday with the Europeans and the Ukrainians, I'm sure you spoke about security guarantees for Ukraine in case of a ceasefire. Could you give us a sense of what that could look like, and is the U.S. ready to back up any eventual European reassurance force for Ukraine?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that gets into a level of specifics that we're not ready to discuss publicly yet. Obviously, the term "security guarantees" came up because they come up in every meeting. We've heard about it. And it's not an illegitimate desire. Every sovereign nation on Earth has a right to defend itself. Ukraine will have a right to defend itself and to enter into whatever agreements it wants to enter into on a bilateral basis with different countries and so forth.
So, I mean, it was discussed, but I don't - and (inaudible) have to be part of any sort of conversation. Ukraine - in order for there to be peace, we recognize that Ukraine has to feel like it has the ability to defend itself from a future attack from anyone. Every country in the world has that right. But, I think everyone recognizes that Ukraine's ability to defend itself is going to be a part - it's its right as a country and will be a part of any agreement. But we're not working yet on that level of specifics. I think that's something we can fix and solve in a way that's acceptable to everyone.
I think we have bigger challenges that we need to figure out whether it's even possible within the short term. I can tell you this: This war has no military solution to it. It really doesn't. It's not going to be decided with - neither side has some strategic capability to end this war quickly. And so what we're talking about here is avoiding thousands and thousands of people from dying over the next year. We're trying to avoid that. We saw what happened last weekend with a missile strike in Sumy, where people died on Palm Sunday. We're just going to see more like that. On both sides we're going to see more of that, and we're trying to prevent it.
But we're not going to continue to fly all over the world and do meeting after meeting after meeting if no progress is being made. So if they're serious about peace - either side, or both - we want to help. If it's not going to happen, then we're just going to move on. We're going to move on to other topics that are equally if not more important in some ways to the United States.
QUESTION: Secretary of State, is this process involving the Europeans going to be the process going forward now for Ukraine talks? And who from the U.S. team will be attending talks in London next week?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it depends what the talks will be about next week. As I said, if it's just going to be a meeting to have another meeting, we'll figure that - whether it'll happen. I'm hoping that it's a meeting where we're going to get more specificity.
So we're going to work through that. We don't even have a date set. It'll be early next week. Obviously, we're having - there's a holiday weekend, so people have to move around and get to their places and get back. We'll - but having another meeting somewhere in Europe is not going to be a problem, and we can make that happen to have the right people there. I'm willing to come myself if the meeting is going to be productive.
But I can - what was the first part of your question again?
QUESTION: And is this going to be the process going forward?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, look, we've always worked through the - I mean, we've always - we talk to our allies consistently. I myself have had multiple engagements with not - the Germans, the French, the Brits, but also the Italians have been at some of these meetings as well in the past. So we've had these conversations with them before. So, they offered to host us here today, or yesterday, and it was - I think they were very helpful, very constructive. We'd like them to remain engaged. I think they can help us. I think the UK and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this and then get this closer to a resolution. I thought they were very helpful and constructive with their ideas.
So we welcome their input. We welcome their involvement. We think it's important. There are probably elements of this as well. I always remind everybody that part of the sanctions against Russia, many of them are European sanctions that we can't lift, if that were ever to be part of a deal. So they're going to have to be involved no matter what. It's their continent. This is happening on the continent of Europe, and so obviously European powers will care deeply about what happens.
So, they have a stake in this and we recognize it, and they - but in the end I think we all want the same thing. I think from the U.S. perspective, we've spent three years, billions of dollars supporting the Ukrainian side, and - but now we've reached the point where we have other things we have to focus on. We're prepared to be engaged in this as long as it takes, but not indefinitely, not without progress. If this is not possible, we're going to need to move on. I think the President feels strongly that we've dedicated a tremendous - we've done more in 80 days than Biden ever did to bring this war to an end. So, we've dedicated the - almost the entirety of the President's first hundred days in office at the highest levels possible to trying to achieve a peace here. And if it's going to happen, we want to help. But if it's not going to happen, we need to know now because we have other things we have to deal with.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, James from Fox News. In terms of your discussions with Foreign Minister Lavrov yesterday, what gave you the indication that he's also willing to move forward given that they hadn't accepted the framework of the ceasefire already, in terms of now from your discussions, why you feel that (inaudible) be (inaudible move forward?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, I spoke to Minister Lavrov yesterday because when we have these kinds of meetings, it's important for you to communicate to the other side, otherwise they don't know what happened; now they're relying on rumors or whatever's out there. So I spoke to him very directly. I said we had a meeting today with the Ukrainians. We proposed an outline. We didn't go into specificity about it, but I think he has an understanding of some of the elements of it. I'm sure he does. I said we thought it was constructive.
We thought it was positive that nobody rejected anything, nobody got up from the table and walked away. They're going to go back to their capital, spend a few days mulling over it, come back to us early next week. And also wanted him to know that the French and the British and the Germans were very constructive and helpful. That was the gist of the conversation. And I think it's important when you're dealing with things like this, especially with the Russians who we just haven't communicated with for three and a half years, I think it's important that that communication happen. And likewise when we've had meetings with Russians in the past or when Secretary - when Ambassador Witkoff has traveled to meet with Putin, we've informed the Ukrainian side of what happens so that we don't have a breakdown in trust and things of that nature.
QUESTION: Quick, just on Iran really quick. Was there any discussion yesterday with your European counterparts on any of the Iran negotiations? Are they also sharing the President's vision of Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, for the Europeans, they have an important decision to make very soon on snapback - on the snapback of sanctions - because Iran is clearly out of compliance with the current deal. As you saw, the IAEA was in Tehran yesterday, issued public statements saying Iran is as close as it's ever been to nuclear weapons. The President's made clear Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. That is not going to happen. We're hoping that talks continue and that they're fruitful and that they're - that they can lead to something. We would all prefer a peaceful resolution and a lasting one. It has to be something that actually not just prevents Iran from having a nuclear weapon now, but in the future as well, not just for 10 years with some sort of sunset provision or the like.
So we discussed that, obviously, because the Europeans, the E3, have a decision to make on snapback. Because I believe we should all anticipate, based on the public comments yesterday, that they're about to get a report from the IAEA that says not just is Iran out of compliance but Iran is dangerously close to a weapon, closer than they've ever been. And then they're going to have to make a decision about whether they want to reimpose these sanctions. And if Iran is not in compliance, they have to reimpose the sanctions. So that's going to be a factor in all this and that's why it was important we talk to them about it before our talks on Saturday.
QUESTION: Thank you.
SECRETARY RUBIO: All right? Thank you, guys.
