On this week’s episode of Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that if Iran were to close the Strait of Hormuz following the U.S. attack against its nuclear facilities, it would represent a “massive escalation” warranting a response. Host Maria Bartiromo asked, “Do you expect Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz to disrupt oil transportation?”
“Well, I would encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call column 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,” Rubio said.
“But other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours. It would be a, I think, a massive escalation that would have merit, a response not just by us, but from others. So look, they’re going to they’re going to say what they need to say. You know, these are the things that need to happen for their own internal politics and so forth,” the Secretary of State continued.
“But in the end, we’re going to judge them by the actions that they take moving forward. We had three objectives. We struck those three objectives with decisive force, and that was the point of this mission. And that’s what we achieved,” he said. “What happens next will depend on what they do. They want to negotiate. We’re ready to negotiate. They want to get out and do things that are dangerous. We have responses available that are devastating.”
President Donald Trump has also warned Iran that “there will be either peace or there will be tragedy” for the country following the strikes. “Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill,” he said.
“Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close. There’s never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago,” Trump added.