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US Navy warships stationed in the Persian Gulf region have stepped up patrols through the Strait of Hormuz, a busy merchant shipping lane, in response to Iran’s latest move to seize two oil tankers, the latest sign of tensions between Iran and the United States. .
“Iran’s actions are unacceptable,” Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the U.S. naval commander in the region, said in an interview Monday at a Navy base in Bahrain. He spoke days after he boarded a Navy guided-missile destroyer through the Strait of Hormuz, along with leaders from the French and British navies, in an effort to send a unified message to Iran.
Iran has “harassed, attacked or interfered” with 15 merchant ships under international sanctions since 2021, Pentagon and White House officials said this month, as they announced steps to increase patrols by ships, drones and aircraft of the US Navy, as well as the United States. The country’s allies in the region.
Most recently, the Iranian Navy flew a helicopter over the deck of an oil tanker named Advantage Sweet in late April. The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel had been chartered by Chevron, en route to Houston from Kuwait, and according to Lloyd’s List, which tracks shipping, was carrying 750,000 barrels of crude oil.
Commandos from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps descended to the deck of the Advantage Sweet via a rope and seized control of the ship after passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran later showed a video celebrating the seizure on state television.
Six days later, a dozen speedboats from the Iranian navy surrounded a second oil tanker, this time the Niovi flag of Panama, after leaving dry dock in Dubai, on its way to another port in the United Arab Emirates. The ship was forced to divert to Iranian territorial waters.
The United States “will not allow foreign or regional powers to jeopardize freedom of navigation in Middle East waterways, including the Strait of Hormuz,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, when announcing the increase in US Navy forces. patrol earlier this month.
The Strait of Hormuz, which borders the United Arab Emirates and Oman on one side and Iran on the other, is only 21 miles. But see the constant traffic of merchant ships, especially among the oil tankers that supply oil to the world.
The plan, at least for now, is not to send additional Navy ships or aircraft to the region, Pentagon officials said, but rather to move those already in the region through the Strait of Hormuz, to send a signal to Iran that the United States and its allies are watching. , and it gets closer if something else happens, said Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
The Fifth Fleet’s naval operations cover 2.5 million square miles of water, from the Persian Gulf to parts of the Indian Ocean, and more of its ships will now focus on the area around Iran.
“It’s like when you roll more patrol cars on the highway,” Commander Hawkins said. “He went out of the exit and came back, and kept doing this loop.”
On Tuesday, a US Coast Guard cutter, preceded by a drone ship operated by the Navy in the Persian Gulf, sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, along with the USS Paul Hamilton, a guided missile destroyer, which had also made the same trip. on Friday.
In response to the new move by the United States, Iran has supported that action against two commercial ships came after both sides violated international maritime regulations, including the Advantage Sweet, which Iranian officials confirmed collided with an Iranian vessel, injuring crew members. .
“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the continued presence of foreign military forces in the waters of the Persian Gulf as a threat to the security of navigation in this strategic waterway and believes that the countries in the region have the ability to protect peace and security. Nasser Kanani, spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , said in a statement.
In April, just before Iran seized the oil tanker Advantage Sweet en route to Houston, the United States intercepted a ship carrying Iranian oil that the government said was in violation of sanctions, according to Ambrey, a maritime intelligence firm, as first reported by The Financial. multiple. US authorities said the seizure had been granted under a court order.
At least in the mid-1980s – when there was a period dubbed the Tanker War due to several attacks by Iran on merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz – there was a cycle of escalation in the region when the ships were intercepted by Iran. has intensified or decreased.
There is always a risk that sparring between the United States and Iran could quickly escalate into conflict, but both countries want to avoid that outcome, experts in the region, as well as a US Navy official, said.
“It’s almost like Kabuki theater that the two countries have been doing for a long time, even though the reality of a serious armed conflict is almost unthinkable for both countries,” said John Ghazvinian, director of the University’s Middle East Center. from Pennsylvania and the author of a book on the history of relations between Iran and the United States.
But hostilities between the two countries have increased over the past few years. Two crew members were killed in July 2021 when an Iranian-made drone, armed with explosives, attacked a merchant ship called the Mercer Street, off Oman, in an incident that American and European officials say they believe Iran was behind.
The United States has used Navy and Coast Guard ships in the region to search for weapons and drugs shipped through the Persian Gulf, as Iran has been accused of helping its allies in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon, and more recently, of sending attack drones to Russia, which it uses to invade Ukraine.
Tensions have also increased since the Trump administration withdrew in 2018 from the United States of the nuclear deal with Iran, which then moved again to begin increasing its supply of uranium closer to the level needed to build nuclear weapons.
The Pentagon announced in April that it was extending the George HW Bush aircraft carrier’s tour of the eastern Mediterranean and accelerating the deployment of Air Force A-10 attack aircraft to bases in the Middle East. It also made a rare public announcement that the United States was sending guided missile submarines to the Middle East.
Mr Ghazvinian said the Pentagon’s recent actions could be an attempt to reaffirm US relevance in the region, after China in March stepped in to help negotiate diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Some Gulf Arab officials say China’s growing presence can no longer rely on the United States to guarantee its security.
Commander Hawkins, the Navy spokesman, said the United States and Iran have the right to patrol the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and have for decades.
Eric Schmitt contributed reports from Washington.
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