Marco Rubio Asked If US Plans On 'Making Europeans Pay' For Houthi Strikes As Discussed In Chat

2 days ago

During a press briefing with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked if the Trump Administration plans to make European countries pay for the cost of Houthi strikes as was discussed in their leaked Signal chat.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Thank you so much for taking my question, Mr. Secretary.

00:03I just want to circle back to John's question, Ari, the signal chat.

00:07Ah, the signal chat, yes.

00:08But of course, are you planning on making the Europeans pay for U.S. operations against

00:14the Houthis, given that their businesses seem to benefit more from opening up these shipping

00:19lanes, as discussed in that chat, and then moving to Russia and Ukraine?

00:23I was wondering if you could elaborate on the Black Sea ceasefire deal, and whether

00:29– how it's progressing.

00:31President Zelensky has already questioned Russia's seriousness, saying, quote, they

00:37are trying to distort agreements and, in fact, to see both our intermediaries.

00:43So on the first question about – look, here's the problem, okay?

00:46These guys, these Houthis, these are pirates, okay?

00:49This is a band of – it's a gang, in essence.

00:54It's gotten control of a certain part, but these are a religious fanatic gang.

00:58And these guys have missiles, and they've launched 174 attacks against U.S. Navy ships,

01:02150-something attacks on commercial vessels.

01:05They are literally saying they've controlled – they've set up a toll system at the

01:08Red Sea.

01:09These ships can go, these ships cannot.

01:11They don't blow up the Chinese ships, they don't blow up – but they blow up all the

01:14other ships.

01:15This is not sustainable.

01:16And so I think the point that I've made publicly is we are doing a great favor to

01:20the world.

01:21The United States is doing a great favor to the world, going after these guys' capability

01:25of doing this.

01:26How do we live in a world where a group like this has advanced weapons, okay, and can shut

01:32down a shipping lane and increase the cost of shipping that we're all paying for?

01:37Everything we buy, all the stuff is embedded in the cost and in the price of these things

01:40is how much it costs to ship it.

01:42And so that's just not a sustainable thing.

01:44We can't allow it.

01:45So I think the point I would make is not, you know, we're going to make everybody

01:47pay or – it's everybody should recognize we are doing the world a great favor going

01:52after these guys, because this can't continue.

01:53This is unsustainable.

01:54What's next?

01:56You know, some gang is going to show up somewhere else and shut off another shipping street,

01:59a shipping lane?

02:00That's not practical.

02:01It cannot happen.

Marco Rubio Asked If US Plans On 'Making Europeans Pay' For Houthi Strikes As Discussed In Chat

Category

Transcript

Recommended