By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday accused Iran’s regime of committing acts of terrorism by attacking commercial shipping vessels in the Hormuz Strait.
“The whole world has been impacted, unfortunately, because Iran is violating every law known by striking commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz,” Rubio told reporters at the State Department.
The waterway has effectively been shut down for more than a month, driving up oil, gas, fertilizer, and energy prices worldwide. Iran has launched attacks on merchant ships in the region since the war began, Rubio said.
“It’s a big problem for the world. I mean, this is a regime that doesn’t believe in laws and rules or anything like that,” he stated.
“It’s a state sponsor of terrorism, so it is not surprising that they’re now conducting terrorist operations against commercial vessels.”
U.S. Central Command, the military command in charge of operations in the Middle East, said that more than 13,000 Iranian targets have been struck so far in the roughly five-week-long war in Iran, and disputed claims from Iran that its military struck a U.S. amphibious assault ship, the USS Tripoli.
Rubio’s comment came ahead of a deadline set by President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the strait by 8 p.m. ET or risk seeing its power plants and bridges struck by the U.S. military.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday morning. “However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”
“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. Forty-seven years of extortion, corruption and death, will finally end,” he added. “God bless the Great People of Iran!”
In an operational update on Monday evening, CENTCOM announced that 13,000 targets have been hit by the military since Feb. 28, an increase of about 700 since April 1.
Separately, CENTCOM on Monday disputed claims from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and state-run media reports that it struck the USS Tripoli with missiles, forcing it to withdraw to the southern Indian Ocean.
The Tripoli hasn’t been attacked and it “continues to sail in the Arabian Sea in support of Operation Epic Fury,” said the command, adding that around 3,500 sailors and Marines are aboard.
On Monday, state-run Tasnim News carried a statement from the Revolutionary Guards saying it had destroyed an Israeli cargo ship and that the Tripoli was “also hit by rapid Iranian missile launches, forcing it to retreat deep into the southern Indian Ocean after this wave of attacks.”
Iran’s president said on Tuesday that 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war.
The figure is double the other figures mentioned by state media in the past. Iran is home to 90 million people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
