US asks China to stop Iran from closing a hormuz

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on China from preventing Iran from closing the Hormuz Strait, one of the most important shipping routes in the world.

His comments came after Iran’s state press announced that parliament had approved a plan to close the Strait, but added that the final decision was hiding in the Supreme Council for National Security.

Any interruption of oil delivery would have deep consequences for the economy. In particular, China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil in the world and has a close relationship with Tehran.

Oil prices have risen after the US attack against Iranian nuclear sites, with the price of Brent Crode benchmark reaching its highest level in five months.

“I am encouraging the Chinese government in Beijing to call them (Iran) for this, as they are highly dependent on the Hormuz Strait for their oil,” Marco Rubio said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

“If they (close the Strait) … This will be an economic suicide for them. And we reserve options to deal with it, but other countries should also look at it. This would harm other countries’ economies much more than ours.”

About 20% of the world oil passes through the Hormuz Strait, with the main producers of oil and gas in the Middle East using the waterway to transport energy from the region.

Any attempt to violate the Strait Operations could send global oil prices.

They jumped to their highest since January, with the price of Brent Brent reaching $ 78.89 a barrel by 23:22 GMT Sunday.

“The United States is already positioned with a huge posture of defense in the region to prepare for all Iranian counter attacks. But the risk of oil prices is the situation can escalate seriously,” says Saul Kavonik, Head of Energy Research at MST Financial.

The price of raw oil affects everything – from how much it costs to fill your car to the price of food in the supermarket.

In particular, China is buying more oil than Iran than any other country – with Iran’s oil imports exceeding 1.8 million barrels a day last month, according to data from the Vortexa ship tracking company.

Other major Asian economies, including India, Japan and South Korea, also rely largely on the raw oil that passes through the Strait.

Energy analyst Vandana Harry said Iran had “a little to win too much to lose” from closing the strait.

“Iran risks turning its neighbors with oil and gas into the bay into enemies and referring to the fury of its key market China by violating traffic in the Strait,” Harry told BBC News.

The United States has joined the conflict between Iran and Israel over the weekend, with President Donald Trump saying that Washington has “deleted” the key nuclear sites of Tehran.

However, it is unclear how much damage was caused by the strikes, with the UN nuclear guard said he was unable to evaluate the damage to Fordo’s highly fortified underground nuclear object. Iran said there was only insignificant damage to Fordo.

Trump also warned Iran that they would encounter “far worse” future attacks if they do not abandon their nuclear program.

On Monday, Beijing said the US strikes had damaged Washington’s confidence and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Chinese UN Ambassador Fu Kong said all countries should limit “the impulse of force … and add fuel to the fire,” according to a CCTV state report.

In the editorial office, the State Global Times also said the US involvement in Iran “is further complicated and destabilizes the situation in the Middle East” and that this pushes the conflict to the “uncontrollable state”.