US must ‘force our way’ to get Strait of Hormuz reopened, expert says
Hudson Institute senior fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs told “Fox & Friends First” on Friday that the U.S. must continue to use force against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and that she’s “not confident” a memorandum of understanding will be signed with the regime.
“I think President Trump has been exactly right that you use military force for diplomatic purposes and I think that the only way we are actually going to get any progress here is if we force our way through the Strait,” Heinrichs said.
She added that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “continues to fire at us, we fire back and yes, degrade their air defenses, degrade a lot of their radar, but from my perspective, that’s the way forward.”
“We just keep doing what we have been doing and potentially bring in more allies to help us do it, but I do not see a deal in which we are actually asking the IRGC to permit us through, I think we have to continue what we have been doing and force our way through to get oil flowing through the strait,” Heinrichs said.
She also told Fox News that she is “not confident” that the U.S. will sign a memorandum of understanding with Tehran.
“We have seen this before where the administration certainly tries to push the momentum to get a deal. But because the administration has been very clear that there is not going to be any money released to the regime and that the United States is not going to lift the blockade until the IRGC demonstrates it will let ships through the Strait without harassing them and shooting at them, and until the Iran regime… commits to full dismantlement of its nuclear program, that the United States isn’t going to remove any U.S. forces from the region at all,” Heinrichs said.
“Because of those red lines that President Trump has been so consistent on, I do not see anybody in the Iran regime willing to make that deal and having the ability to enforce it and control the IRGC,” she added. “Remember, the IRGC is still shooting at U.S. forces in the region. They just shot down an Apache helicopter with Americans in it, thankfully they were safe and sound, we were able to rescue them without harm. But I am not confident that this deal is going to happen and if there is a deal I don’t think it’s going to be worth the paper it’s on.”