Representative Brian Mast (R-FL), as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, weighed in on the latest round of negotiations with Iran in a recent appearance on Fox Business's Mornings with Maria, calling the decision by President Donald Trump to blockade the Strait of Hormuz "wise."
Iran recently offered to end its nuclear program, which is the White House's ultimate goal, if the war ends and the Strait of Hormuz is reopened under Iranian control, so long as Trump lifts the blockade.
The ongoing blockade has, according to the trade analytics group Kpler, resulted in Iran running out of storage space for oil within 12 to 22 days.
Rep. Mast commented on this, saying, "It is not just that they are looking for places to store it, by the way. "It is also that they are burning it off, because they do not have enough storage for all of this." "The economic blockade that the President very wisely put in place is absolutely working. That and the other forms of maximum pressure that you put on Iran is absolutely working," he added.
The Florida congressman noted that "Iran has an ability to intimidate the Strait of Hormuz, but they do not have a total ability to close the Strait of Hormuz."
As a result, Mast said that the United States must maintain its two key goals in negotiating with Iran: first, the Iranians cannot use the Strait as "a tollway for themselves," and the Iranian nuclear program must be ended totally.
"The President is in the right position right now to say, 'Okay, we have this ceasefire that is more durable than most are giving it for,'" he concluded. "And really, Iran needs this a lot more than the United States of America does. So let us let them come to the table with more and more offers because we are not going to accept any less than what we need."
