Iranian paramilitaries in\u00a0the Persian Gulf are ratcheting up\u00a0their confrontations with U.S. warships in international waters, and the U.S. is taking notice.
Iran’s defense minister said Thursday that his naval forces will warn or confront any foreign ship entering the country’s territorial waters, The Associated Press reported<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incidents, however, have all taken place in international waters, according to the 5th Fleet spokesman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The U.S. Navy continues to operate in accordance with international law and\u00a0internationally recognized maritime standards,” Cmdr. Bill Urban told Navy Times on Friday. “We operate wherever\u00a0international law allows.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rising tensions<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
International law hasn’t stopped\u00a0Iran from trying to make a statement in provoking U.S. forces,\u00a0according to Anthony Cordesman,\u00a0a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Why would they make those distinctions?” he told Navy Times in a Friday phone interview.\u00a0“It\u2019s an interesting argument if you happen to be a lawyer. If you\u2019re dealing with realpolitik, there\u2019s a certain element of, \u2019who really cares?\u2019 “<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a handful of reasons that Iran might be poking the bear, he added. It could be a protest of what they see as non-compliance from the U.S. on the\u00a0nuclear deal.\u00a0It could be over tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, or a reaction to the U.S.’s increased strikes against ISIS\u00a0in Syria, an Iranian ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or, Cordesman said, it could be one low-level IRGCN commander trying to show off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In the past, the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah\u00a0Ali Khamenei]\u00a0and certainly the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps]\u00a0command has rewarded people who were willing to show their capabilities in this way,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, the IRGCN commandos who arrested 10 U.S. sailors at gunpoint after they strayed into Iranian waters in January\u00a0were hailed as heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond that international incident,\u00a0the U.S. and Iran had 250 run-ins between their warships and boats\u00a0in the first six months of this year, putting 2016 on track to surpass 2015’s total of 300, according to 5th Fleet statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roughly 10 percent of those incidents are considered unsafe and\/or unprofessional, Urban said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The U.S. Navy continues to remain vigilant and is\u00a0trained to act in a professional manner,” he added. “We expect the same of all nations\u00a0with professional maritime forces.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for Iran, the danger of coming within a few hundred yards of an U.S. ship might be worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“How dangerous the interactions are is relative. This type of demonstrative action is something that was fairly common during the Cold War,” Cordesman said. “Whenever you want to assert yourself as a power you can do so fairly safely. The worst that happens is a limited combat action or a collision.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The foreign policy implications of those incidents would be huge for the U.S., he added, which is why ships take such care to avoid running into the Iranian\u00a0boats or\u00a0having to fire on one, ramping up attempts to communicate with them or scare them off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Not every incident escalates, but no incident can be ignored,” Cordesman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iranian paramilitaries are ratcheting up their confrontations with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, and the U.S. is taking notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3308],"class_list":["post-44714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YQELYIVCNJHKFLRRWPQP3VOX3Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/2016\/08\/26\/iranian-boats-escalate-confrontations-with-u-s-navy\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n