U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to explain the necessity of establishing a wide-scale coalition of nations that will aim to deter the Islamic republic from targeting commercial vessels at sea earlier this week in Sydney, Australia.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Australia, the American top diplomat revealed that more than 60 nations have been invited to join the U.S.-led taskforce. He said: “Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror has demonstrated its willingness to pull commercial vessels from the sea. It put mines on six ships, it pulled a British vessel from the waters, it’s still holding that ship and we just think that’s wrong and needs to be protected against and the best way to do that is deterrence; to create stability. So, what we’ve asked 60 plus nations to do is provide assistance in deterring from and securing the Strait of Hormuz so that commercial vessels can travel through there.”
While the United States does not procure significant volumes of oil from the Arabian Gulf, Washington’s commitment to the security of its allies and partners, as well as its efforts to avoid a kinetic conflict, has forced it to act to assure the freedom maritime navigation. Pompeo said: “We want to make sure we have a comprehensive program so that Iran won’t do something that will either A; risk that there will be a kinetic conflict, which is something the United States certainly doesn’t want, but second, that we protect the Australian economy, and the Japanese economy, and the South Korean economy, who each depend on goods being able to flow through that strait.”