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Rubio says there’s been “a lot of progress” toward Gaza deal, but still "work to be done"

09 October 2025 01:10 (UTC +04:00)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that there has been “a lot of progress” towards a deal in the Gaza conflict and he is “optimistic,” though he warned there is “still some work to be done”, APA reports citing CNN.

“We’re getting very positive reports, as of an hour ago. I guess it’s nightfall over there already, but we feel we’ve made a lot of progress today, but there’s still work to be done,” he said as he left the Senate Republican lunch, where he had updated the conference on the talks.

“I feel optimistic that we’re going to get to a deal, hopefully, that hostages will be released — all the hostages. There’s good progress being made,” added Rubio. “But it all begins with all the hostages coming home. And I think we have to be optimistic, but there’s still some work to be done.”

Rubio noted that talks are progressing so quickly that he is canceling his plans to travel to France for a meeting with other foreign ministers, so that he can be available to go to the Middle East.

The Secretary reiterated that, under the proposed deal, hostages would be released “almost immediately.”

“We’d like to see them released, you know, within 72 hours, the way the outline of the deal calls for,” he said.