“I am concerned about rogue commanders, rogue Iranian Quds force naval commanders who are operating in a provocative manner and are trying to test us”.
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Iran’s IRGC Navy is primarily responsible for patrolling the Persian Gulf. Several US allies in the region, Arab states, prefer to call it he Arabian Gulf, and there have been military directives instructing US troops to use that term when deployed in the area. “They don’t go out and they don’t drive fast boats towards military vessels out there in the same way that they do”. We acknowledge that all countries have the right to operate in worldwide waters but they should do so in a responsible manner. Professional maritime forces don’t operate in that way.
It was one of three encounters that USA ships had with Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps boats in the Gulf that day.
According to new data shared Monday with Fox News by a U.S. defense official, the number of provocative interactions between Iranian vessels and the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf almost doubled in the first half of 2016 compared with the same time period a year ago.
The US defense official said that in Tuesday’s incident the USS Nitze tried to communicate with the Iranian vessels 12 times, but received no response.
In the incident with the Squall on Thursday, shots were only fired after other standard de-escalation methods – including firing warning flares and attempting to make radio contact – failed, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said. They remained measured in their response and they helped keep a tense situation from escalating into an global incident.
“That type of behavior is very concerning and we hope to see Iran’s naval forces act in a more professional manner”, he added. It’s unsafe. And it can lead to situations where we may not be able to de-escalate in time before something happens.
Votel personally witnessed a confrontation while in transit through the Strait of Hormuz aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans.
If such a confrontation, which can escalate in a matter of seconds, were to develop further, the American sailors would “prevail”, Votel said.
Risky confrontations between Iran and the U.S. Navy are becoming even more frequent than previously estimated, Fox News has learned. Only a very, very small percentage of them do.
“What I see is this is principally the regime leadership trying to exert their influence and authority in the region”, he said.
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Votel noted that 90 percent of unsafe encounters with Iranian boats are conducted by Quds specials forces from the IRGC. The uptick in naval confrontations come at a time when the U.S. and its allies are concerned about Iran’s posture in Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Gulf.
