Posted on 06/16/2019 5:00:17 PM PDT by Mariner
Washington (AFP) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Sunday that the US will guarantee free passage through the vital Strait of Hormuz, as he accused Iran of recent attacks on oil tankers and the downing of a US drone.
Pompeo confirmed in an interview with CBS that a US MQ-9 "Reaper" drone was shot down June 6 with a missile fired from Yemen "that we assess had Iranian assistance."
Pompeo would not be drawn on what options the US is considering to protect shipping -- or to punish Iran -- in the wake of Thursday's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, but reiterated that President Donald Trump is not seeking war with Iran.
"What you should assume is we are going to guarantee freedom of navigation throughout the strait," he said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."
Iran has denied the US charges as "baseless" and said they were made without "a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence."
A third of the world's seaborne oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel bordered to the north by Iran that links the Gulf with the Gulf of Oman.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Suez crisis comes to mind....I was 12 but I remember it because of the Newspaper headlines....in the day when EVERYONE got the newspaper.
Translation: The entire Iran incident is a CIA op.
It’s not the 1970s anymore. The US is a major oil exporter now and is not in our national interest to guarantee the business of our competitors at our own expense.
If we’re going to be a hired gun for the Saudis, let’s fetch a fair price for it. A trillion a year should be a good starting point. If they don’t like it, they can guarantee their own security, and we can make money off them selling weapons instead.
Every ship using the strait needs to pay a fee for the protection. Perhaps that would reduce their insurance premiums and their costs/savings would balance out. Or perhaps the insurance companies could pay for the protection.
Not our problem and not our job.
Send Pompeo & Bolton and their supporters if this is what they want to do.
I agree with that.
I said the same on another thread, and a lot of neocons appeared and they seemed to be spoiling for another war in the Middle East. I have no interest in any more sandy adventures. We have plenty of oil here. Let other nations try to solve the problems of peace in the Middle East. Good luck to ‘em.
I’ve wondered why there hasn’t been an extension of the tranSaudi pipelines to Yanbu on the Red Sea. Except Qatar most countries would be benefit.
With all of the military equipment and training given to the Emirates and Saudis, one would think they could keep the gulf open.
“Not our problem and not our job.
Send Pompeo & Bolton and their supporters if this is what they want to do.”
Maybe so but Trump doesn’t agree. He’s the CiC who is calling the shots now unless you believe he is impotent and is allowing his cabinet to run this deal. You may need to include Trump in your list of people to send.
[The US is a major oil exporter now ]
We should protect US ships, everyone else can protect their own.
Not true. We will be a net exporter of petroleum liquids next year, nearly if not all 12 months of 2020. Assume liquids means crude plus refined output. Maybe also natural gas liquids and LNG.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTNTUS2&f=M
Gulf Coast refiners need sour crude to be efficient. They were built when they expected heavy oil from the middle east. Now domestic shale oil is light oil.
Refiners need to find heavy crude and blend it with the light oil from domestic sources. Venezuela and Mexico are failing to meet what is needed. Alaskan oil and Canadian tar sands can provide it.
California is the main culprit with their ridiculous rules. They import a lot from OPEC including Saudi Arabia. Keystone XL needs to be completed. Trump covered his Montana permit to a presidential permit to get around that injunction. 9th circuit gave the go ahead last week. When it gets started then completed, 870,000 bbl per day will be coming down to Gulf Coast.
I’m not sure that I agree with this strategy. If he is talking about flagging vessels transiting the Straits this will obligate us and essentially if one were attacked that would be an act of war. A serious escalation. If we are to escalate, I’m in favor of going on the offensive and attacking the naval port facilities in Iran so that they cannot perform these attacks in the first place. Our intelligence has to have a bead on where these ships are ported from and a bunch of tomahawk cruise missiles striking those facilities should do the job nicely without risking loss of life and also ensuring continued transit of the oil tankers.
Two words
Nuclear weapons
That makes the whole world and bad guys our business
I think we should see only to the safety of USA shipping, but let the others fend for themselves. Let the Arabs defend the straights...it’s is their oil, their money being lost...not ours.
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