Kaine: Strait of Hormuz should be 'open to all' |
Kaine: Strait of Hormuz should be ‘open to all’
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) said Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz must be reopened for all shipping traffic after Iran announced the waterway’s closure over the U.S. blockade.
“If they’re going to be open, I think they have to be open to all,” Kaine told Fox News’s Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday” as the U.S. military has stopped some ships from traveling in the Strait and blocked Iranian ports.
The global energy market has been hit hard since the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran in late February, resulting in the effective closure of one of the world’s key shipping corridors.
Tehran agreed to reopen the Strait during negotiations earlier this month, when a two-week ceasefire was instituted. Israel’s strikes in Lebanon, however, caused Iran to once again close the key waterway days later.
President Trump on Friday announced the passageway would reopen amid the U.S. blockade. But later Friday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp said it would remain closed amid the blockade.
“With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open,” Iran’s Parliament Leader Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf wrote in a post on social platform X, adding that passage through the strait will be “conducted based on the ‘designated route’ and with Iranian authorization.”
This back and forth comes as gas and oil prices continue to spike — and with the two-week ceasefire set to lapse this week. Earlier Sunday, Trump announced that he will be sending another delegation to Islamabad on Monday in the hopes of hammering out a deal with Tehran.
“It’s my hope that in the negotiations, we would first agree to extend the cease fire,” Kaine, who serves on Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, said of this week’s talks. “Then we would talk about this nuclear issue.”
The Virginia Democrat argued that a ceasefire extension could give Washington and Tehran time to negotiate on key issues, including Iran’s nuclear capabilities, while alleviating the energy market.
“If you can get the ceasefire to extend and get the Straits open, as they were on February 27th, then you don’t have to rush the negotiation,” Kaine said, adding that he doesn’t think the talks in Islamabad will be “an easy negotiation.” “You can take the time to get that right without bombs falling and commerce choked off and everybody’s gas prices going crazy all around the world.”
Energy Secretary Christ Wright, however, signaled that the Strait will likely remain closed until the U.S. and Iran reach a deal to permanently end hostilities.
“After a deal is reached,” Wright told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when the latter asked when it will be safe for vessels to pass through the Strait.
“It won’t be in the too-distant future,” Wright added. “People are ready to go, ships are there. The United States put two warships through the straits. We can open it one way or the other, but the best way to do it is to have an end to the conflict and a defanged and dearmed Iran.”
When Tapper asked whether that will occur in the next two weeks, Wright replied, “That’s probably a reasonable timeframe, it’s not too far away.”
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