U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on China to prevent Iran from closing one of the world’s most important transportation routes.
His comments were posted on Iran’s state-run news TV station that their parliament approved plans to close the straits, but the final decision was the Supreme National Security Council.
Any interference with oil supply will have a profound impact on the global economy. China, in particular, is the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil and has close ties with Tehran.
Oil prices soared after the U.S. attack, with benchmark Brent crude reaching its highest levels in five months.
“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call it (Iran) because they depend to a lot on Hormuz’s oil strait,” Marco Rubio said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
“If they [close the Straits]…It will be economic suicide for them. We reserve the option to address this issue, but other countries should consider this too. This will be much worse than our economy. ”
About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and major oil and gas producers in the Middle East use water to transport energy in the region.
Any attempt to disrupt the operation of the Strait could cause global oil prices to soar.
They jumped to their highest level since January, with Brent crude reaching $78.89 a barrel as of 23:22 GMT on Sunday.
“The United States is now preparing for any Iranian counterattack with an overwhelming defensive posture in the region. However, the risks of oil prices may escalate further,” said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Financial.
The cost of crude oil can affect the cost from the cost of filling a car to the price of food in the supermarket.
China, in particular, buys more oil from Iran than any other country – more than 1.8 million barrels of oil were imported from Iran last month, according to ship tracking Vortexa.
Energy analyst Vandana Hari said Iran closed the strait and Iran “had almost no gains, too much”.
Harry told BBC News: “Iran risked turning oil and gas neighbors in the Gulf into enemies and caused anger in its main market China by destroying traffic to the straits.”
The United States joined the conflict between Iran and Israel over the weekend, with President Donald Trump saying Washington has “destroyed” Tehran’s main nuclear sites.
However, it is unclear how much damage the strike caused, and the UN nuclear regulator said it could not assess the serious damage to the Fudo underground nuclear site. Iran said Fudo only had a small damage.
Trump also warned Iran that they would face “worse” future attacks if they do not give up on their nuclear program.
Beijing said on Monday that the U.S. attacks damaged Washington’s credibility and called for an immediate ceasefire.
China’s United Nations Ambassador Fukang said all parties should limit “the impulse of force … and increase fuel in the fire.”
In the editorial, Beijing’s national newspaper Global Times also said that our participation in Iran “further complicates and undermines the situation in the Middle East”, pushing the conflict to “uncontrollable countries.”
