US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday called for a “Plan B” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Sweden.
“We all would love to see an agreement with Iran in which the straits are open,” Rubio said.
“But we also have to have a Plan B, and Plan B is, what if Iran refuses to open the straits? What if Iran decides we refuse to open the straits, we're going to own the straits, and we're going to charge tolls for it? Okay, at that point something has to be done about it,” he said.
Rubio said he had raised the issue during the NATO talks and received broad backing from allies.
“I raised that point today. I got a lot of nods, I got a lot of people that came up to me afterwards and acknowledged it, but we don't have an announcement for you today in terms of something that's happening,” he said told reporters.
The top US diplomat noted that an international coalition led by France and the United Kingdom was already preparing a possible naval mission to help ensure safe transit through Hormuz in the event that a deal to end the war is reached.
“But we have to have a Plan B for if someone is shooting. How do you reopen the straits?” Rubio asked.
“I don't know if that would be a NATO mission necessarily, but it would certainly be NATO countries that can contribute to it.”
With energy prices surging globally, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz has become one of the key sticking points in stalled negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
Since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran nearly three months ago, Tehran has effectively rendered the strategically vital oil and gas shipping route largely impassable through threats and attacks on tankers and cargo vessels. The US responded by imposing its own blockade on ships entering or leaving Iranian ports.
