Marco Rubio accused Iran of using the Strait of Hormuz as global leverage.
US urged allies to share responsibility for protecting vital commercial shipping routes.
Renewed attacks and naval blockade intensified tensions across the Strait of Hormuz.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Iran of trying to use the Strait of Hormuz as "leverage against the world".
Rubio spoke before departing for the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in the Philippines, the Economic Times reported.
He urged other countries to step up and share the financial and military burden of securing these critical routes. The US will continue safeguarding commercial shipping but is currently bearing the "burden of protecting global shipping", Rubio said.
Crumbled Ceasefire and Attacks
A fragile ceasefire agreed in mid-June collapsed in the weeks before Rubio's statement.
Iranian forces targeted three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on July 6-7. A commercial tanker off the coast of Oman caught fire during these attacks.
Escalating Military Confrontation
The US re-established its naval blockade on Iranian ports on July 14, 2026, wikipedia.org reported. An Iranian missile and drone strike on a Jordanian airbase killed two US service members on July 17.
The US launched nine consecutive days of retaliatory strikes following the airbase attack. Reports of more tanker explosions in the waterway emerged today as well.
ASEAN Summit Highlights
Some of the world's most intractable conflicts, including the latest fighting in Iran, will be high on the agenda of the annual talks held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), when they gather in the Philippine capital on Tuesday. The Philippines holds the 11-nation regional bloc's chairmanship this year and is hosting the three-day talks in Manila. The talks will be joined by Western and Asian counterparts, including from the US, China, Russia and the European Union.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are among the key attendees. Ukraine's top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, has been invited to attend a Friday ceremony commemorating a 1976 nonaggression treaty of ASEAN but is not a participant in the ASEAN meetings Lavrov and Rubio will attend. Rubio and Lavrov have not announced any plans to meet each other or Sybiha while they are in Manila.
ASEAN foreign ministers will first meet among themselves on Tuesday to discuss the hostilities between the US and Iran. These clashes have spilled into other countries in the West Asia and sparked fears of a return to a full-blown war. They plan to issue a joint statement expressing alarm over the developments and urge both sides to resume talks, two Southeast Asian diplomats reported to The Associated Press.
