Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday that the U.S. Navy could reopen the Strait of Hormuz but warned that keeping the critical oil route open would require help from international allies.
Austin Says Allies Needed For Strait Mission
“Certainly, the United States Navy could open the Strait of Hormuz,” Austin, who served under former President Joe Biden, told Bloomberg during remarks at the HSBC Gulf Cooperation Council Exchanges Conference in London.
“Holding it open for a long period of time would be pretty costly and so we’d like to see an international effort, if that’s the case,” he said.
Austin said freedom of navigation matters not only to the United States but to the “entire globe.”
Hormuz Closure Pressures Global Energy Markets
The comments came as President Donald Trump has criticized foreign governments, including South Korea, Japan and Germany, for not doing more to help reopen the waterway.
The Strait of Hormuz has been largely closed to commercial traffic since March, restricting oil and fuel shipments from the Middle East. Under normal conditions, the waterway carries about one-fifth of global oil and petroleum-product consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Austin, now a national security consultant, said he hoped a ceasefire would hold long enough for negotiations to progress.
“We would like to see this ceasefire hold, so that we can get negotiations completed and then we can get the strait open again,” Austin said. “It’s important to not only the United States but the entire global economy. And so, the sooner we can do that, the better.”
Fuel Prices Rise As Tensions Escalate
The disruption has shaken shipping markets and helped push U.S. fuel costs higher. AAA listed the national average for regular gasoline at about $4.16 on Tuesday, while California drivers continued to pay more than $5 a gallon.
Oil prices also remained elevated. At the time of writing, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude commanded a price of $88.2/barrel, with the Brent crude oil falling 0.32% to $91.16/barrel.
Trump said both pilots were rescued near Oman and promised a “very strong” response. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) criticized Trump’s handling of the conflict, saying the administration was not in control as inflation and shipping costs rose.
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