Rubio says Iran using Hormuz as leverage, calls on other countries to ‘step up’

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, United States: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Iran is using the Strait of Hormuz as leverage in the ongoing Middle East conflict, adding that other countries needed to step up pressure to protect global shipping. “It’s clear that Iran, at least some people in Iran, want to control the straits and hold that as leverage against the world,” Rubio told reporters ahead of traveling to the Philippines for a meeting of foreign ministers with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).