US Won't Let Iran Close off Straight of Hormuz

After Iran threatened to attack Israel and close off the straight of Hormuz if attacked the US said it will not let Iran do just that. Fox News

The U.S. Navy and its Gulf allies will not allow Iran to seal off the strategic Strait of Hormuz if the country is attacked, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the Gulf said Wednesday.

The warning comes as Iran's oil minister vows that any attack on his country by the United States or Israel would provoke an unimaginably fierce response.

The announcement by Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the 5th Fleet, came as he was holding talks with naval commanders of Gulf countries at a conference in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi. The one-day meeting was to focus on the region's maritime and trade-route security and the threat of terrorism.

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The 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, across the Gulf from Iran. Cosgriff said that if Iran choked off the Strait of Hormuz, it would be "saying to the world that 40 percent of oil is now held hostage by a single country."

"We will not allow Iran to close it," he told reporters.

Cosgriff's comments follow Iranian threats that it could seal off the key passageway in case of a Western attack on Tehran. But Cosgriff said that if Iran moved to choke off Hormuz, the "international community would find its voice rapidly" against Iran.

Earlier this week, Cosgriff said in Bahrain that such an Iranian move would be viewed as an act of war.

Cosgriff said that out of 60 percent of known world oil reserves in the Gulf, a third are shipped by sea. Twenty-five million barrels of oil pass through Hormuz every day — the equivalent of about $3 billion, he said.