US Secretary of State for ASEAN, ‘cannot decide control of a waterway’
Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz would represent a “very dangerous precedent” with consequences that would go beyond the Middle East.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this while speaking at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila. The Times of Israel reports.
“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a state can decide to control an international waterway, impose a toll and blow up your ships if you don’t pay, we have created a very dangerous precedent that will be repeated in other parts of the world, including this region,” Rubio told ASEAN envoys.
The head of US diplomacy linked the Hormuz issue to the strategic interests of Southeast Asia, a region heavily dependent on international shipping routes and energy trade. According to Rubio, a change in the rules on freedom of navigation in the Middle East could also have repercussions on other strategic maritime corridors globally.
