{"id":568684,"date":"2026-05-06T05:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/568684\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T05:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:14:09","slug":"rubio-insists-us-is-very-fortunate-as-iran-war-pushes-gas-price-near-4-50-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/568684\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio insists US is \u2018very fortunate\u2019 as Iran war pushes gas price near $4.50 | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marco Rubio<\/a> has argued the US is in a \u201cvery fortunate\u201d position as fuel prices continue to climb nationwide amid disruption sparked by the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/a><\/p>\n

With average US fuel prices<\/a> now approaching $4.50 a gallon \u2013 their highest level in four years \u2013 the US secretary of state was asked on Tuesday how long Americans should accept them at such levels.<\/p>\n

Other countries were suffering \u201cbig time\u201d, Rubio replied. The US was \u201cvery fortunate\u201d as a net exporter of oil, which is not as reliant as other countries on oil from the Middle East, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been insulated to some degree,\u201d Rubio added. \u201cWe\u2019re obviously still vulnerable, to some extent, to global prices. But in the end, we\u2019re more insulated than other countries \u2013 even though that\u2019s not welcome news to Americans that are paying more at the pump, no doubt about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people that we\u2019re predicting would be much higher at this point,\u201d he claimed, \u201cbut we\u2019re not taking that for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global oil prices have surged since the US and Israel first attacked Iran on 28 February. The strait of Hormuz<\/a>, which usually carries a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquid gas supplies, has since been all but closed \u2013 sparking vast economic disruption across the world.<\/p>\n

Average fuel prices in the US now stand at $4.48 per gallon, according to AAA, frustrating drivers and exacerbating affordability concerns. A year ago, they were just under $3.17.<\/p>\n

From the early days of the war, Americans expressed their anger on gas station forecourts as fuel prices increased. \u201cI don\u2019t give a shit about Iran,\u201d Kevin Dass, an underemployed father of two in Detroit, told the Guardian<\/a> in March. \u201cI don\u2019t want to pay higher gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio claimed that fuel prices would be even higher \u2013 about $8 or $9 a gallon, he projected, without citing evidence \u2013 if Iran had a nuclear weapon and decided to close the strait of Hormuz. \u201cA nuclear-armed Iran could do whatever the hell they want with the straits, and there\u2019s nothing anyone would be able to do about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marco Rubio has argued the US is in a \u201cvery fortunate\u201d position as fuel prices continue to climb…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-568684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}