GOP Chairman Says Trump-Xi Summit Could Lower Gas Prices

Gas Prices and the Strait

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast told Fox News that President Trump has a prime chance to lower costs for Americans. He argues that China is the main reason gas prices are so high right now. Mast said China “probably is the number one actor that is working to raise those prices,”.

The current national average for a gallon of gas is $4.47. This figure is up more than 30 cents since September 3. Mast blames China’s support for Iran in its conflict with the United States. He says this support has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to safe trade.

Over the last two months, Mast noted that Trump moved more than a billion barrels of oil via the Strait of Hormuz. He added that Trump moved over 2,000 ships through the strait while Iran moved nothing. The chairman believes the upcoming summit is the key to fixing this problem.

The Leverage to Act

Mast points to a new Russia-Iran sanctions bill the president recently signed into law. He says this legislation gives Trump the power to press Xi Jinping on easing support for Tehran. The goal is to stop Iran from attacking civilians moving through the vital oil route.

“If President Trump can secure that China will stop arming Iran, who is trying to destabilize this key oil route through the globe, then the president will have done something very important for affordability,” Mast said. He notes that global crude prices directly equal the prices Americans pay at the pump.

Senator John Kennedy told the Fox News Channel that China could open the strait tomorrow if it told Iran to. Kennedy says China is choosing not to help and that the U.S. might have to decide if it is time to let other nations deal with the situation.

A Mother’s Plea

The summit also brings focus to a personal case involving an American woman. Ziba Murat is asking President Trump to ask Chinese leader Xi for clemency for her mother. For eight years, China has wrongfully imprisoned Dr. Gulshar Abbas, the mother of Murat.

“We are doing everything we can to bring this in front of President Trump, and I know that if he knows about this case, he will care about this case,” Murat told Fox News. Abbas was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges her daughter calls “made up.”

Murat described the hardship of raising a family without her mother. “It’s been hard because, like I said, I was a new mom myself when all this started happening,” she said. She hopes the summit will help bring her mother home.

Thursday’s event marks Trump’s third meeting with Xi of this term. This marks the initial U.S. trip by Xi since the president came back to the White House last year.

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