“The Chinese government should be the first to be angry about it, because … a lot of their oil comes through there,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday.
“They should be the first ones that are saying, if they mine the Straits of Hormuz, the Chinese are going to pay a huge price, and every other country in the world is going to pay a huge price. We will too. It will have some impact on us. It will have a lot more impact on the rest of the world,” Rubio said.
The US still has “options to deal with that,” Rubio continued, but the action “would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours.” “Massive escalation that would merit response, not just by us but from others,” he said.
In the wake of the Iran strikes, DHS warns of the possibility of lone wolves and cyberattacks:
In a bulletin released Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security warned of a “heightened threat environment” in the United States, pointing to the potential for “low-level cyber attacks” and the ongoing concern of lone-wolf attacks in the wake of US strikes against Iran.
Law enforcement officials told CNN days prior to the US strikes that there is currently no indication of credible threats, even though intelligence and law enforcement agencies are reexamining known or suspected Hezbollah associates in the US in order to look for potential threats that could arise as tensions with Iran increase.
“What makes a difference is when it is credible and specific.”
According to the National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin, pro-Iranian “hacktivists” are expected to target US networks, and other Iranian government-affiliated individuals may launch similar attacks.
Iran may use cyberattacks to retaliate against the United States, as the United States suspected Iranian-affiliated hackers of hacking the Trump campaign last year.
Regarding physical, domestic assaults, DHS cautions that “the likelihood of violent extremists in the Homeland independently mobilizing to violence in response to the conflict would likely increase” if Iranian leaders “issued a religious ruling” urging retaliatory violence against US targets.
The advisory states that the dispute may also serve as motivation for violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators who aim to attack individuals who are thought to be Jewish, pro-Israel, or connected to the US military or government in the Homeland.
Additionally, the State Department encourages family members and non-emergency staff to depart Lebanon.
Following the US’s historic military strike against Iran and in the face of possible reprisals or a wider conflict, the action was taken.
It has ordered troops in Israel to stay put and pulled down troops in Iraq.
The US embassy in Saudi Arabia stated on Sunday that it “has advised its personnel to exercise increased caution and limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region” in light of “reports of regional hostilities” and that it encourages “American citizens in the Kingdom do the same.”
US government officials in Turkey “have been advised to keep a low profile and to refrain from personal travel to the US Consulate Adana consular district, which includes the 22 southeasternmost provinces of Turkey.”
Source: CNN and other media outlets
