(Bloomberg) -- There’s “no doubt” Iran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers leaving the Persian Gulf last week, and the U.S. will guarantee safe commercial navigation going forward with its partners, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said.
“The United States is going make sure that we take all the actions necessary, diplomatic and otherwise, that achieve that outcome,” Pompeo said on “Fox News Sunday,” one of two scheduled appearances on political talk shows.
Pompeo spoke days after he and President Donald Trump accused Iran of being behind attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which abuts Iran and is a strategic choke point for crude oil coming out of the Persian Gulf.
Asked how certain the U.S. is about Iran’s responsibility, Pompeo said “it’s unmistakable what happened here” and there’s “high confidence” Iran was behind other attacks throughout the world during the past 40 days as well.
The U.S. has released video of what it says was an Iranian boat approaching one of the tankers at night to remove an unexploded limpet mine and other evidence that it says point to Iran’s responsibility for the attacks.
“Iran did do it and you know they did it,” Trump said Friday during a phone interview with Fox News.
‘Economic Terrorism’
Iran has denied any wrongdoing. The country’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, on Friday suggested in a series of tweets that Iran’s enemies may have been behind the attacks, accusing the Trump administration of “economic terrorism’’ and blaming it for the “renewed tension in our region.”
The incidents highlight the potential risks of the Trump administration’s aggressive approach toward Iran. They’ve raised fears that months of building tensions over Trump’s decision to abandon and nuclear deal and restore U.S. sanctions might grow into a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
Pompeo blamed Iran for escalating tensions. He declined to discuss what options the administration is considering in response but said Trump has been clear that the country will not acquire a nuclear weapon.
In other matters, the secretary of state also said Trump’s decision to push ahead with $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite congressional opposition “made enormous sense.”
Asked about Trump comments suggesting the U.S. would not spy on North Korea, Pompeo said the U.S. is “taking all the actions that it needs to take to make sure we understand the risks and the threats that are posed by North Korea.”
Pompeo said he also expects Trump will talk about human rights if he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 leaders’ meeting June 28-29 in Osaka, Japan. Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through Hong Kong Sunday after leader Carrie Lam suspended a controversial extradition bill.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.net;Shawn Donnan in Washington at sdonnan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Kennedy at skennedy4@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette, Ros Krasny
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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