By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora
MANILA – The United States is committed to diplomacy and willing to negotiate with Iran, said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday as hostilities between the two states continue.
“The United States remains open and willing to engage in positive, constructive negotiations and talks so long as the commitments that are made are kept,” he said in his opening remarks at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Post-Ministerial Conference with the U.S. in Pasay City.
He warned, however, that consequences are necessary and “has to happen” if those commitments were violated.
“If these consequences did not exist, then today we would be living in a world where the significant percentage of the energy supply of this region and 20 percent of the energy supply of the world is being held hostage by a nation-state, by a rogue regime who intends to appropriate that and the right of tolling and controlling that shipping to itself—a right they do not have under any definition of international laws, particularly those that govern maritime transit,” he said.
The statement came a day after the foreign ministers of ASEAN member states conveyed “serious concern” over developments in the Middle East after the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. was declared over.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Wednesday said it has successfully completed Washington, D.C.’s 11th consecutive evening of strikes against Iran “to further degrade” its ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
CENTCOM stated that over the past three months, Iran has attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the international waterway, endangering hundreds of seafarers and undermining freedom of navigation. (PNA)
