NEW YORK, July 19. /TASS/. The United States would prefer to ensure free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz through a peace agreement with Iran, but will do this even without a deal with Tehran, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.
"President [of the US Donald] Trump wants to end it with a peaceful agreement with Iran, but it takes two parties to do that. If they're ready to do that, that's the way it'll end. If not, we will continue to assure flow of traffic through the Strait without Iran's cooperation," he said in an interview with ABC News.
According to Wright, around 14 million barrels of oil is coming from the Middle East region daily, with seven million barrels being shipped via the Strait of Hormuz and the rest being pumped through pipelines. "We're at a little under 14 million barrels a day from the Arabian Gulf region. That's two thirds of pre-conflict traffic, dramatically up from where we were back in March," he stated.
The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28. In June, Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding envisaging an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. However, the United States resumed large-scale attacks on Iran overnight to July 8, having accused it of breaching the existing agreements in what concerned the Strait of Hormuz.
