US has plans to curb oil price spike, protect shipping: Rubio

Washington: The United States has a plan to counter rising oil prices and protect global shipping lanes as it presses ahead with strikes aimed at crippling Iran’s missile arsenal and naval power, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the US Capitol.

Rubio said markets were reacting to events in the region but insisted Washington had anticipated the fallout.

“Yes, and we, we’ve, we knew that going in would be a factor,” he told reporters when asked about spiking oil prices. “There is a plan in place. We anticipated this could be an issue.”

He said Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would begin “rolling out those steps starting tomorrow to mitigate, to mitigate against the impact that could happen.”

Rubio warned that Iran’s naval capabilities posed a broader threat to global trade. “This terroristic regime led by radical clerics has the ability potentially to shut off 20 per cent of global energy. That’s the kind of leverage they have because of their navy. We’re gonna destroy their navy,” he said.

He described the US mission as narrowly focused but urgent. “The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy, particularly to naval assets,” Rubio said.

According to Rubio, intelligence assessments indicated an “imminent threat” if Iran came under attack. “There absolutely was an imminent threat,” he said, arguing that if Washington had waited, “we would suffer more casualties and more deaths.”

He said the objective was to destroy Iran’s missile launch capability, manufacturing base, and drone stockpiles, along with naval assets that threaten shipping. “The objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and of their naval capabilities,” Rubio said.

Rubio stressed that the operation was not designed as a regime-change campaign, though he expressed hope for political change in Tehran. “We would love for there to be an Iran that’s not governed by radical Shia clerics,” he said, adding that the current mission was focused on weapons systems, not governance.

He said the United States was not planning to deploy ground forces at this stage. “We believe the objective that we have set for this mission, which is the destruction of the ballistic missile capabilities… can be achieved without ground forces,” Rubio said, adding that the administration was “not postured for ground forces” at present.

On reports of civilian casualties, including claims of a strike on a school, Rubio said he did not have details but insisted the United States “would not deliberately target a school.”

He declined to predict the duration of the conflict. “We will do this as long as it takes to achieve those objectives, and we will achieve those objectives,” Rubio said.

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint, carries a significant share of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Any disruption there has immediate global price implications, including for large energy importers including India.

IANS