Marco Rubio Shrugs About Reopening Strait of Hormuz: ‘We Depend Very Little on It’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz as a major problem for the United States, arguing it will affect allies and other countries more.

Rubio joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity as the Iran war continues, with President Donald Trump claiming on Tuesday that U.S. involvement should be wrapped up in two or three weeks. Hannity asked Rubio if the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly 20% of the world’s oil moves through, being open for the “for the free flow of oil” will be a condition on the U.S. leaving Iran.

Iran has been attacking cargo ships and reportedly charging tolls for use of the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country.

Rubio said Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz is a problem for the world, but he stressed that the U.S. does not rely on it.

The Iran conflict has led to soaring gas prices stateside, with the national price topping $4 this week for the first time since 2022. Trump claimed on Tuesday that prices will drop once the U.S. leaves Iran.

Rubio said:

Well, the Strait of Hormuz, those are international waters, so anything Iran does to impede commercial traffic is illegal. For all these countries that like to talk about international law, it’s a violation of maritime law to impede the free flow of travel in international waters, so that’s number one. Number two, it’s illegal to bomb and hit and attack commercial shipping and sink them. That’s what the Nazis did during World War II in the Atlantic and that’s what they are doing now to ships from countries they don’t like. These are terroristic acts they are undertaking so the United States gets very little energy through the Strait of Hormuz. Our allies ship a lot of oil through there, meaning our Gulf allies, and certainly countries in Asia and Europe depend on it.

We depend very little on the Straits so if, in fact, Iran decides to set up a toll, if they decide they are going to illegally control the Strait and decide they are going to try to do that, look, I imagine that will be the president’s call whether he wants to help but this is a problem for the world. It’s countries around the world that should be stepping up and dealing with that and saying that’s intolerable and we’ve encouraged them to do.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump claimed he doesn’t “think” about reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“I don’t think about it, to be honest. My sole function was to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. When we leave, the strait will automatically open.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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