The US Navy has confirmed that one of its warships fired warning flares at an Iranian attack boat in the Strait of Hormuz, releasing an accompanying video.
According to officials, the speed boat owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was speeding directly towards the warship before the flares were fired, causing it to turn away at the last minute.
The Cyclone-class patrol ship USS Sirocco and Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport USNS Choctaw County found themselves at odds with 3 Iranian fast boats while trying to enter the Persian gulf through the heavily disputed Strait.
The USS Sirocco tried to warn the Guard Boghammar fast boats away, the video shows, with them blaring horns long before the flares were ever used. The total standoff took more than an hour before the Iranians finally backed off.
In their official statement about the event, the Navy said that the Iranian Guard’s “actions did not meet international standards of professional or safe maritime behavior, increasing the risk of miscalculation and collision
The pseudo-assault by Iran on the US Navy comes as talks to restart their nuclear protections have all but stalled. Since the US pulled out of the Iranian nuclear agreement under President Trump, Iran has come ever closer to weapons grade fully enriched uranium, something they do not intend to give up.
While the negotiations are stalled, Iran is preparing to begin enriching even more uranium using a second set of advanced centrifuges located at its underground Fordo facility.
The Strait of Hormuz where the assault occurred is an extremely strategically important location with over 20% of the world’s entire oil supply coming through the water passage.
Iran has never been a great ally of the United States and their new threats to our military supremacy in the region go further to prove that. How do you think the US should handle Iran? Should we be involved in Middle Eastern politics at all or should we let them settle their own disputes and work with whoever wins?
