US has plans to curb oil price spike, protect shipping: Marco Rubio

Amid surging oil prices and mounting unease across global markets, the United States has unveiled a strategy to steady energy flows and safeguard vital maritime corridors even as it intensifies military strikes aimed at crippling Iran’s missile arsenal and naval power.

Speaking at the US Capitol, secretary of state Marco Rubio acknowledged that markets were rattled by the escalating conflict but insisted Washington had anticipated the turbulence.

“Yes,” he told reporters when asked about spiking crude prices, “we knew that going in would be a factor. There is a plan in place. We anticipated this could be an issue.” He added that energy secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would begin rolling out measures to cushion the economic shock and mitigate potential fallout.

Rubio cast Iran’s naval capabilities as a looming menace to global commerce, warning that Tehran holds the capacity to disrupt nearly a fifth of the world’s energy supply. “This terroristic regime led by radical clerics has the ability potentially to shut off 20 per cent of global energy,” he said, pointing to the strategic leverage conferred by its navy. “We’re going to destroy their navy.”

He described the US mission as urgent yet narrowly defined — a targeted operation to neutralise what he termed an “imminent threat”. According to Rubio, intelligence assessments indicated that if Iran were struck, retaliation would follow swiftly and lethally. “There absolutely was an imminent threat,” he said, arguing that delay would only have meant “more casualties and more deaths.”

The objective, he explained, is the systematic dismantling of Iran’s short-range ballistic missile launch capabilities, its manufacturing infrastructure, drone stockpiles and the naval assets that imperil commercial shipping. “The objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and of their naval capabilities,” Rubio said, framing the campaign as one of strategic necessity rather than expansion.

He was careful, however, to draw a distinction between military action and political ambition. The operation, Rubio stressed, is not designed as a regime-change campaign, even if Washington hopes for a different future in Tehran. “We would love for there to be an Iran that’s not governed by radical Shia clerics,” he remarked, while reiterating that the present focus remains squarely on weapons systems, not governance.

For now, the United States is not preparing to commit ground troops. Rubio said the administration believes its objectives can be achieved through aerial and naval operations alone and is “not postured for ground forces” at this stage.

Responding to reports of civilian casualties — including claims that a school may have been struck — Rubio said he did not have operational details but insisted the United States “would not deliberately target a school.”

As to how long the conflict may endure, he declined to offer a timeline. “We will do this as long as it takes to achieve those objectives,” he said, underscoring a resolve that suggests no immediate end in sight.

At the heart of global anxiety lies the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow maritime artery through which a substantial share of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows. Any disruption there sends immediate tremors through international markets — with large energy importers such as India acutely vulnerable to price shocks.

As warships manoeuvre and missiles arc across contested skies, the struggle is not merely regional. It is a contest whose ripples spread across oceans and economies, entwining geopolitics with the daily rhythms of global trade.

With IANS inputs