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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on August 20, 2019. Photo: AFP / / Johannes Eisele
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned attendees of a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday that failure by the international community to counter "Iran's malign activities" will lead to a growing "multi-continental body count."
Pompeo was one of more than 30 speakers at the meeting held in New York to discuss challenges facing the Middle East.
He warned UN Security Council members that Iran has spread violence across the Middle East through continued and increasing backing of proxy groups.
“Iran has increased its provocative campaigns and attacks since US sanctions were imposed,” Pompeo said, referencing a US imposition of economic sanctions on Iran in November 2018.
After a rise in attacks on oil vessels in the Persian Gulf in recent months, the US is attempting to assemble an international coalition to guard the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, a highly strategic waterway through which up to a quarter of the world's oil exports travel.
Washington has sent official invitations to over 60 nations to form the naval coalition.
Bahrain joined the US-led international coalition to preserve freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf on Monday.
Pompeo confirmed the participation of Bahrain at the Security Council meeting, saying the “US has now reached an agreement with Bahrain and the UK to provide security to the Strait of Hormuz.”
The kingdom, whose coastline hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, became the first Arab country to join the alliance.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Wednesday that his government would send a warship, surveillance aircraft and Defence Force personnel to the Persian Gulf to join the US led international force.
"Fifteen to 16 per cent of crude oil and 25 to 30 per cent of refined oil destined for Australia transits through the Strait of Hormuz. So it is a potential threat to our economy," Morrison said.
New Zealand's Defence Minister Ron Mark said that Britain had informally asked if New Zealand could help with guarding the Strait of Hormuz.
"I've said right now both of my frigates are in Canada undergoing refit. We don't actually have any capabilities available," Mark told reporters adding that the parliament would have to discuss the matter if a formal request was made.
Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi said at the meeting that it was instead the presence of foreign - particularly American - forces in the region that harmed Persian Gulf security.
“The number of foreign military installations in the Middle East has jumped from four in 1991 to 41 in 2018. Nearly all of them belong to the US, which mark the highest concentration of military sites in the world,” he said.
In a press conference on Tuesday, US special envoy to Iran Brian Hook also addressed the use of Iranian-backed proxies to "support terrorism in the region," naming Houthi rebels in Yemen, saying that they are funded by Iran's "oil revenues."
Tensions in the Persian Gulf have been escalating since Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018, reimposing economic sanctions on Iran the following November.
In response, Tehran suspended some its commitments to the deal and has subsequently threatened further withdrawal, sparking fears among the deal's European signatories that the deal could collapse.
In an interview on Monday with MSNBC, Pompeo said 2.7 million barrels per day of Iranian oil had been taken off the market. OPEC said in its latest report that Iran production was 2.2 million barrels per day. The country exported 120,000 barrels per day in July, according to Reuters.
Kpler, an intelligence firm tracking the movement of oil tankers, told Radio Farda on July 30 that Iran has a store of 56 million barrels of oil in ports in the Persian Gulf.
Updated at 10:50am
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