U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said that more than 17 million barrels of oil transited through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday—a record during the U.S.–Iran conflict—due to American military protection.
Iran is losing its capacity to “hold the world economic hostage” as the U.S. military provides security to oil tankers traveling through the strait, Wright told CNBC on Wednesday.
Since the start of the war, Tehran has fired upon commercial ships trying to pass through the strait while asserting that vessels must follow routes that only Iran approves.
In the meantime, U.S. forces have struck Iranian military assets in and around the strait, a key waterway that allows for about a fifth of the world’s oil to pass through during peacetime….