Mike Pompeo vows US will guarantee passage through Strait of Hormuz after accusing Iran of attacks
- US secretary of state confirms American ‘Reaper’ drone was shot down with missile fired from Yemen ‘that we assess had Iranian assistance’
- A third of the world’s seaborne oil supply passes through the strait, a narrow channel bordered to the north by Iran
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed on Sunday that the US will guarantee free passage through the vital Strait of Hormuz, as he accused Iran of recent attacks on oil tankers and the downing of a US drone.
Pompeo confirmed in an interview with CBS that a US MQ-9 “Reaper” drone was shot down on June 6 with a missile fired from Yemen “that we assess had Iranian assistance”.
Pompeo would not be drawn on what options the US is considering to protect shipping – or to punish Iran – in the wake of Thursday’s attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, but reiterated that US President Donald Trump is not seeking war with Iran.
“What you should assume is we are going to guarantee freedom of navigation throughout the strait,” he said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.
Iran has denied the US charges as “baseless” and said they were made without “a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence.”