❌〰 Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State on the Islamic Republic of Iran:

Iran is demanding control over transit traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, even though there is no existing legal mechanism that provides for it. This is an international waterway.

If we set precedents in the Middle East in which a nation-state can decide to control an international waterway, collect fees, and, if payment is not made, blow up your ships, then we would have established very dangerous precedents that would be repeated in other parts of the world, including in this region.

So what is at stake here is not only the issue that occurs in the Strait of Hormuz. This is a very fundamental principle regarding freedom of navigation. And if this principle is threatened, in my view, the global economy is also threatened, as are the laws that have underpinned 150 years of international trade and commerce. And it should not be allowed to happen.