Pakistan(National Times)- \u201cI encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that because they heavily depend on the Strait of Hormuz for their oil,\u201d Rubio said on Fox News. Analysts have said Iran may opt to retaliate to Washington\u2019s early Sunday attack by shutting the Strait, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes. \u201cIf they do that, it will be another terrible mistake. It\u2019s economic suicide for them if they do it, and we retain options to deal with that,\u201d Rubio added. \u201cBut other countries should be looking at that as well, it would hurt other countries\u2019 economies a lot worse than ours. It would be, I think, a massive escalation that would merit a response. Not just by us but from others,\u201d he said. Meanwhile, Iran has threatened bases used by the US military, with an advisor to Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying they will be considered a \u201clegitimate target for our armed forces.\u201d However, it remains to be seen whether the US strikes will push Tehran to de-escalate the conflict or to widen it further. China has joined Russia and Arab states in condemning the US attacks, saying that they \u201cescalate tensions in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan(National Times)- \u201cI encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that because they heavily depend on the Strait of Hormuz for their oil,\u201d Rubio said on Fox News. Analysts have said Iran may opt to retaliate to Washington\u2019s early Sunday attack by shutting the Strait, a waterway through which one-fifth of global […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n