Richard Haass

I wouldn't do it in close because in close also gives Iran more military options.

But yeah, I would hopefully that they would think twice about it.

These ships are expensive.

The oil on them is valuable.

If worse came, you've got two options.

One is you basically block the tanker with a naval vessel, or technically you could disable it.

You could shoot something very specific out of propeller or whatever.

I'd rather not have it come to that.

But if worse came to worse, you could do that.

But first I'd go diplomatic, then I'd go blocking.

Then I would do, if I had to, some type of shooting.

But again, not to hurt the crew, simply to disable the vessel.

It's a good question.

To me, it's the biggest question.

When I came up with the idea three, four weeks ago, and I wrote about it in Home and Away, my newsletter, that to me was the biggest concern.

It wasn't simply because we have a summit plan with China, but the U.S.-Chinese relationship is arguably the most important relationship in the world at this time in history.

The last thing we want is a crisis with China, a complicated enough relationship as it stands.

So I would talk to them, and I would make it clear that they have every incentive to get Iran to act reasonably.

This is not Iran's waterway to close.

And our goal is simply to make it open.