Rubio: Iran Wants To Charge A Toll For Hormuz, The Rest Of The World Should Care
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on other countries to care more and do more about stated ambition of “some in the Iranian regime” to respond to US and Israeli attacks by charging a toll on all ships going through the Strait of Hormuz. “You guys need to do something,” Rubio said to fellow G7 representatives. “the countries that are most impacted by that should be willing to do something about it, and we’ll help you.”
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There are some in the Iranian regime that are going around saying that they want to make the Strait of Hormuz a tolling thing. They want to make it permanent. That’s unacceptable. The whole world should be outraged by it. We’re impacted by it a little bit, but the rest of the world is impacted by it a lot more, including many of the countries represented here today at the G7. And so if those countries are deeply impacted by it, all we’ve said is: you guys need to do something about it. We’ll help you, but you guys are going to need to be ready to do something about it. Because when this conflict and when this operation ends, if the Iranians decide, Well, now we control the Strait of Hormuz, and you can only go through here if you pay us and if we allow you to, that not only is illegal under international law and maritime law, it’s unacceptable, and that can’t be allowed to exist. And so what we’ve said is that the countries that are most impacted by that should be willing to do something about it, and we’ll help you. And that’s what I said.
