For decades, the United States has had to deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran (also known as Persia)
The government of Iran is an Islamic democracy, that believes that the U.S. and all non-Islamic countries are infidels.
Iran has Israel at the top of its list of nations they must destroy. The U.S., Israel’s strongest ally, is therefore on the hate list.
The Iranian government was repelled by outrage and the United States was taken, hostage. Sailors were forced to kneel.
Iranian media published photos and videos that showed the arrest of 10 U.S. Navy sailors by the Iranian military. The American Navy personnel were forced to kneel with their hands on their heads. Iranian officials are also seen inspecting Navy vessels and checking their weapons. These images were broadcast on Iranian media. The video shows one Sailor apologizing to Iran for his transgression into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf.
Once again the US had a run-in with Iranian gunboats.
Iran is suspected of using oil tankers belonging to other countries to circumvent U.S. sanctions. The U.S. had to seize the vessels.
A U.S. destroyer was last week monitoring activity from an oil tanker.
Iran’s media wants to create an anti-American propaganda piece from the interaction of their small boats and the U.S. Navy. A video was released showing Iranian gunboats attacking a US warship with machine guns.
American military news reports:
Last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deployed gunboats in the Sea of Oman and swarmed around the U.S. Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68).
Footage of the encounter was released by Iranian media sources. The footage showed the IRGC gunboats swarming around an oil tanker and pointing machine guns at the nearby U.S. warship.
Iranian media outlets claimed that the IRGC forces prevented the U.S. from committing an act of piracy against an Iranian oil tanker. However, at least one U.S. official has refuted this claim. Also, the oil tanker seen in the video appears to be a Vietnamese flagged vessel called Sothys.
Newsweek reported that a U.S. official denied the U.S. destroyer tried to capture the vessel and instead stated that the warship was responding to the incident.
“We’re refuting the Iranian claims that they prevented us from taking back this vessel,” the official said. “Here’s the bottom line: This occurred last week. U.S. naval forces in the Gulf of Oman observed Iranian naval forces seize this oil tanker.”
The official said that there were more than 10 Iranian fast boats that swarmed the thing. “A helicopter was seen flying around and our forces responded to the situation.”
Iran’s government is well aware that the U.S. military can be tainted to a certain degree and has sometimes pushed the limits to find the fuse.
I am glad to see cooler heads prevailed, at least this time.
