Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected outright the notion of a Palestinian state, saying that there could never be such a thing without a negotiation involving Israel and an end to the war between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group Hamas.

Rubio addressed the issue during a Tuesday appearance on “CBS Mornings,” brushing aside the number of world leaders who’ve recently “recognized” a Palestinian State, and telling host Tony Dokoupil that he believed President Donald Trump was the only world leader with the ability to broker the necessary negotiations to make that happen in the future.

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“There is no Palestinian state, and the only time there will ever be one is if there’s a negotiation with Israel, which right now is impossible because they have a war going on with Hamas…The only leader in the world really that can broker that or bring that together is… pic.twitter.com/0nm3qtsk62

— Department of State (@StateDept) September 23, 2025

“There is no Palestinian State, no matter how many papers they put out, and the only time there will ever be one is if there’s a negotiation with Israel, which right now is impossible because they have a war going on with Hamas, a terrorist group that butchered over 2,000 people on October 7th, just — almost two years ago,” Rubio said.

“And so as long as that’s going on, the whole thing is irrelevant and it’s almost a vanity project for a couple of these world leaders who want to be relevant,” Rubio continued. “But it really makes no difference.”

“Now I will say actually, the impact it has had is that it actually derailed … the talks that were going on, made it even harder to get Hamas to enter into concessions that might have brought this to an end,” he added. “And look, we think there is a window of opportunity right now to pursue it, and the only leader in the world really that can sort of broker that or bring that together is President Trump. That’s why every country in the region — and frankly, every country in the world, including many of those involved in this recognition effort — are begging the president to get involved in this issue.”