US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday described American military actions in and around Iran during the current ceasefire as "defensive", as Washington continues efforts to secure shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking at the White House, Rubio said US forces would only respond if attacked.
"This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation. What that means is very simple: There's no shooting unless we're shot at first," he said. "You're not going to let some fast boat come up on the ship and shoot it up. We're going to respond to it. And we've been successful," he added.
The US said on Monday it had shot down multiple Iranian boats as part of ongoing naval operations.
Rubio outlined a US initiative known as"Project Freedom",aimed at guiding commercial vessels safely through the strait, describing it as a "protective bubble". "This is the first step towards reopening the strait and bringing this regime's last-ditch, active economic arson, bringing that to a close," he said.
The waterway, a key global trade route, has seen sharply reduced traffic since the conflict escalated.
Rubio said a number of countries had urged Washington to act to restore safe passage. "So already, many nations, privately and some publicly, have asked the United States to help free their ships and to restore freedom of navigation in the straits of Hormuz and this critical artery of global trade," he said.
The secretary warned that vessels stranded in the region were facing worsening conditions. "These ships, you know, you don't leave a ship out there for this long. You start running out of food. You start running out of potable water, essential supplies, and they're at the mercy of this piracy," he said.
He added that countries not directly involved in the conflict were being affected, both economically and in terms of safety.
Rubio criticised Tehran's actions in the waterway, saying the situation should not become normalised. "They're trying to make this some new normal," he said. "Under no circumstances can we ever allow them to normalize the fact that they get to blow up commercial ships and put mines in the water."
"Our preference is for these straits to be opened to the way they're supposed to be opened, back to the way it was," he added.
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