Pompeo vows US will guarantee passage through Strait of Hormuz

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Sunday that the US will guarantee free passage through the vital Strait of Hormuz, as he accused Iran of recent attacks on oil tankers and the downing of a US drone.

Pompeo confirmed in an interview with CBS that a US MQ-9 "Reaper" drone was shot down June 6 with a missile fired from Yemen "that we assess had Iranian assistance."
"What you should assume is we are going to guarantee freedom of navigation throughout the strait," he said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."
"We don't want a war. We've done what we can to deter this," Pompeo said. "The Iranians should understand very clearly that we will continue to take actions that deter Iran from engaging in this ... kind of behaviour."
"These were attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran on commercial shipping, on the freedom of navigation, with the clear intent to deny transit through the strait."
He expressed confidence that "as we continue to develop the fact pattern, countries around the world will not only accept the basic facts, which I think are indisputable, but will come to understand that this is an important mission for the world."
Adam Schiff, head of the House Intelligence Committee and a leading Democratic critic of the administration, said the evidence of Iranian involvement "is very strong and compelling."
"And in fact, I think this was a Class-A screw-up by Iran to insert a mine on the ship," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."