Rubio: US, China agree Strait of Hormuz should not be ‘militarized’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said the U.S. and China agree that the Strait of Hormuz should not be “militarized,” as Iran has kept the waterway closed despite a ceasefire in its war with the U.S. and Israel.

Rubio, who traveled with President Trump for his high-stakes meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, despite having been sanctioned by the Chinese government since 2020, told NBC News that the U.S. has not asked for China’s help with Iran.

“The Chinese side said they are not in favor of militarizing the Straits of Hormuz, and they’re not in favor of a tolling system, and that’s our position,” Rubio told NBC News’s Tom Llamas in Beijing. “We will never support an Iranian tolling system in the Straits of Hormuz, nor do we think they have a right to put mines in international waters.”

The top U.S. diplomat said that China supports Iran not being able to develop or acquire a nuclear weapon and emphasized that the big difference between China’s response and the U.S. military response is “we’re actually trying to do something about........

© The Hill