Brit Hume Says Trump Has A Way To Make Iran Even More Vulnerable

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume said Monday that the United States retains significant leverage over Iran’s oil infrastructure, even after recent military actions in the Middle East.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a Saturday MS NOW interview that Iran is barring the United States and Israel from using the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking on Special Report with Bret Baier, Hume said the United States still has the ability to make Iran vulnerable.

“The attack on Kharg Island, which the president, as the president has pointed out, and as you all have been reporting, left intact all those big shipment containers, all those great big tanks there, by that major deep-water port. And the United States could cut off a huge percentage of Iran’s oil industry and export capability if it ever got around to actually hitting those oil tanks,” Hume told Bret Baier. “So I think that’s something that has to be kept in mind here. That would leave Iran in a very vulnerable position, which is that its oil industry would be cut off. The Straits will eventually be opened by our military power and perhaps those of other countries. And Iran alone in the world would be left without its oil industry intact. And in the meantime, of course, this affects other countries around the world as well.”

Hume said Iran’s threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are not a smart strategy because Iran relies on the strait for its own economy.

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“The threatening and the menacing of the shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was a kind of a geopolitical masterstroke that Iran has come up with that the United States didn’t really anticipate or didn’t anticipate properly. If that were true, you have to ask this question, which is, ‘Well, why didn’t they do it on day one or day two?’” Hume asked. “And I think the answer to that is pretty evident, which is this. Iran depends, perhaps more than any nation on earth, on the shipment of oil through the Strait of Hormuz out to the rest of the world. It is a major lifeline to the Iranian economy.”

Hume highlighted Iran’s vulnerability, emphasizing that completely closing the Strait of Hormuz would hurt Iran as much.

“And the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is something that Iran could not itself stand. It might be able to slip some ships through of its own, but if the Strait were truly closed, which it would end up being, I think, if this keeps up, Iran would suffer as much as any nation on earth and maybe more than any other,” Hume said. (RELATED: Iran War Might Be Least Popular Conflict In Modern US History)

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that several countries would join the United States in sending warships to the Strait of Hormuz. He said on Truth Social that these countries, especially those affected by Iran’s attempted closure, will help keep the strait open and safe.

Trump also urged countries such as China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the U.K. to join the U.S. in sending ships to the Strait of Hormuz to keep it open. He said this would prevent the strait from being threatened by Iran, while the U.S. would continue military actions against Iranian boats.

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