US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged China to encourage Iran to not shut down the oil corridor Strait of Hormuz, a possibility that several reports indicated after US strikes on Iran’s three nuclear facilities.
Speaking to Fox News, Mr Rubio said, “I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil.”
“If they do that, it will be another terrible mistake. It’s economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours,” he added.
Around 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz. It connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The narrow channel, approximately 33 km wide at the narrowest point, separates Iran (north) from the Arabian Peninsula (south).
Rubio’s remarks came hours after US sent B-2 stealth bombers into Iranian territory and destroyed the country’s three nuclear facilities – Fordow, Ifshahan and Natanz. The strikes involved the deployment of 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft. “We’ll judge them (Iran) by actions moving forward. If they want to negotiate, we will negotiate. If they want to do things that are dangerous, we have responses available,” he said.
In the interview to Fox News, Mr Rubio said the strikes are not a war against Iran. “Trump wrote to Iran asking them to not have a nuclearised program. They tried playing him,” he said, adding that Tehran’s retaliation will be a “terrible mistake”. “We have capabilities they haven’t even seen yet,” he added.
Referring to the 60-day deadline given by Trump to Iran earlier this year to negotiate an agreement over its nuclear programme, Mr Rubio said said the strikes were carried out after Tehran failed to comply with that ultimatum.
The US Secretary of State said the strikes would have been successful at any time, but the element of surprise in the strikes’ timing was to “ensure the safety of our servicemen and women who were in harm’s way while carrying out the operation.”
