US top diplomat Marco Rubio on Tuesday said he saw no need to attack Iran again, as diplomatic efforts to end the war increased and Tehran urged Washington to accept its demands in order to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Hours after President Donald Trump said he saw "positive momentum" towards resolving the eight-month war, Rubio said the United States' successful squeezing of Iran's economy made further attacks unnecessary.
"The economic campaign (against Iran) is so devastating that right now there is no need for major combat operations," the secretary of state said after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris. "That's what I told our allies here today."
Iran's blockade of Hormuz, the major exit route for Gulf energy exports, has sent oil prices soaring -- a major factor in the humbling of Trump's Republicans in last week's midterm elections.
Washington has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports and in August announced what it called an "economic asphyxiation" campaign aimed at strangling Iran's economy, already battered by years of sanctions.
Britain's foreign minister Ed Miliband called for greater effort to end the conflict, while warning of the economic damage of an ongoing stalemate.
"We need to move beyond the 'no war, no peace' stalemate, which is causing deep economic pain for our countries."
