Prior US Navy image shows Iranian patrol boats “harassing” US Navy ships
Originally published on ZeroHedge
While the world’s attention and international headlines have been focused on news out of Bakhmut over the weekend, there has been a build-up of unusual Western military activity just off Iran’s coast as tensions between Western allies and the Islamic Republic are on the rise.
The US, British, and French navies launched an unusual show of force aimed at Tehran, transiting the narrow Strait of Hormuz in joint movements.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM), which is in charge of the Middle East region, in a statement indicated, “The U.S. 5th Fleet commander transited the Strait of Hormuz aboard guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) with naval counterparts from France and the United Kingdom, May 19.”
This stepped-up show of strength comes on the heels of Iran’s recent seizure of two foreign oil tankers. The White House vowed to increase its presence in the Persian Gulf region to prevent such Iranian aggression.
Iran, for its part, has blamed Washington for seizing its own oil exports, for example citing an April US intercept of crude bound for China, casting its actions as a necessary tit-for-tat.
As we wrote last month, all of this means that the “tanker wars” are back, and the situation remains unpredictable, given the US is unlikely to stop its counter-Iran sanctions enforcement.
But Tehran’s military has made it clear that for each Iranian tanker intercept by the US or its allies, the West can expect more international tankers to be boarded by elite Iranian commandos.
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Iran meanwhile has been growing closer in military and trade ties with both China and Russia, having even recently conducted naval drills with both strong powers.
what are they going to do? shoot down iranian helicopters boarding oil tankers? i don’t think so. the last thing nato countries want is start another war while they’re so hopelessly bogged down in ukraine. viva putin. viva bashar hafez al-assad.
they won’t start a war there, everything for them will be the pacific.
if they start another war in iran, that would be the death blow to the western empire. china would overtake the west in almost everything by that point.
they have the power to overtake iran but not iran’s allies.
they don’t have the power to beat iran. china would make sure iran has and endless supply of drones, missiles, and air defense.
see? china will intervene.
the british and the french helped the ayatollah to be put in power and now they are whining.
haha the us and its stooges aim to confront iran, in the front garden of iran! what a joke! it will comparable to a iranian navy controlling the gulf of mexico. iran can deal with the us navy rather easily. and when needed: iran can raze each and every us military base – within the middle east – to the ground. not in days, but within hours!
well lets hope the criminals don’t shoot another civilian airliner down.
they’re shooting sperms ..up your wife’s ass and pussy
and where are the chinese warships to support iran?
the asían century is already there
irán má právo brániť sa!!! zabavia im loď? tak irán zabaví ich a budú si kvit.
tit for tat is never „necessary“. however, iran needs to deter the empire from piracy. hence their actions are understandable. what business do the us, gb and f fleet have anywhere going through that strait? are they in international waters?