Press Releases

On Friday, Representative Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) discussed recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and growing tensions in Iran with Fox News’ Dana Perino.

“The maximum pressure campaign against the Iranian economy is working,” Waltz said. “The Iranian economy is experiencing ridiculously high amounts of inflation. The amount of oil that Iran is exporting has gone – now that the president is has refused to extend waivers – from around 2.5 million barrels per day to 200,000 per day.”

On Thursday, two oil tankers were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said U.S. intelligence found Iran responsible for the attacks. Waltz discussed the reasoning behind a possible attack and applauded President Trump’s maximum pressure approach on the Middle-Eastern nation’s fracturing economy.

 “[Iran is] not getting any revenue in…so they are causing a crisis somewhere else [to] divert the populace. The Iranians know they can’t take us on ship-to-ship or tank-to-tank, so they try to have asymmetric-type attacks.... This administration is saying ‘We are not going to attack your proxies, we are not going to hold Hezbollah responsible – we are going to hold you, the regime, responsible and that is a very different message [than previous administrations.]”

A video of the exchange is available here.