Manama: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday warned that Iran’s move to impose charges on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz would set a dangerous global precedent and could spread to other sea lanes, AFP reported.
“International waterways do not belong to any nation state. This is a foundational principle in the world today, without which the world would be in total chaos,” he told a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain.
“If in fact we accepted that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well then this will spread throughout the world like a contagion,” Rubio added.
On his first tour of the region since Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the Middle East war, Rubio said the United States wants a peace settlement — but not at any cost.
“While we want a deal, we don’t want a deal at any price,” he said. “We want a deal that’s good, we want a deal that’s real, we want a deal that’s verifiable, and we want a deal that’s adhered to.”
The top US diplomat, who has visited the heavily attacked UAE as well as Kuwait and Bahrain during the trip, also pledged that Gulf states’ interests will be considered in any negotiations.
“We want to ensure… that there is no part of this deal that’s undertaken that in any way undermines the security, the stability, or the prosperity of any of our partners in the Gulf region,” he said.
