White House: Iran’s Attacks on Shipping Are ‘Certainly Spiking Now’ and They Threaten American Interests ‘Quite a Bit’

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby acknowledged that there has been “a real increase” in Iranian attacks on shipping in the area of the Strait of Hormuz and this behavior, that “threatens U.S. and global interests quite a bit” is “certainly spiking now.”

Host Wolf Blitzer asked, “The United States is now — and this is significant — deploying a destroyer and fighter jets in response to Iran’s harassing merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz. How much does this Iranian activity actually threaten U.S. and global interests?”

Kirby responded, “It threatens U.S. and global interests quite a bit. We have seen a real increase now in their attempted attacks, or, in some cases, sadly, successful attacks on maritime shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, whether it’s outside the Gulf or just inside the Gulf. And this is activity that we’ve seen spike from the Iranians before, certainly spiking now. And we’re sending a strong message, not just to Iran, but to our allies and partners, that we take this seriously, because so much — particularly oil, so much of that flows through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s a choke point for the Middle East that has global trade implications. We’ve got to make sure that we can defend our interests and the interests of our allies and partners. That’s what these deployments, that’s what they’re all about.”

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