With diplomacy stalled and Iran willing to be more aggressive at sea, the U.S. In 1988, America attacked two Iranian oil rigs used for military surveillance and sank or damaged Iranian ships in the largest U.S. The two sides have been in combat in the past, however. forces in the region haven’t resulted in open warfare. Qassem Soleimani.Īll that raises the risk of conflict, though previous recent buildups of U.S. drone strike in Baghdad alongside Iranian Gen. The missile is named after Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi militant who was killed in a 2020 U.S. Iran also made a point to again show off its Abu Mahdi cruise missile, first unveiled in 2020, which could be used to targets ships at sea up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away. “For years, Americans have been in and out of the region with pipe dreams, but the security of the region will only endure with the participation of the regional nations,” Mousavi said, according to Iranian state television. deployment would bring only “insecurity and damage” to the region. In recent days, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian called his counterparts in both Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to say that “we can have peace, stability and progress in the region without the presence of foreigners.” military hasn’t discussed precisely what it will be doing with the increased presence in the region, the movements have gotten Iran’s attention. Those vessels left Norfolk, Virginia, on July 10 on a mission the Pentagon described as being “in response to recent attempts by Iran to threaten the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and its surrounding waters.” The Bataan passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea last week on its way to the Mideast. The deployment of thousands of Marines and sailors consists of both the USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall, a landing ship. Now, America will have part of a Marine expeditionary unit in the region for the first time in nearly two years. Stealth F-35A Lightning II fighter jets arrived last week. The Pentagon ordered F-16 fighters, as well as the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, to the region. In late March, A-10 Thunderbolt II warplanes arrived at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. It conducted a Strait of Hormuz patrol with the top U.S., British and French naval commanders in the region on board. military has again begun dialing up its Mideast presence. Navy has responded with increased patrols. China continues its push to control more of the South China Sea, and the U.S. Russia’s war on Ukraine shifted some of the American focus back to Europe. Washington’s worries have changed since then. The last Marine expeditionary unit - an armada carrying Marines, aircraft and vehicles prepared for an amphibious assault - came through in November 2021. The USS Nimitz sailed out of the Strait of Hormuz in November 2020 as the last American carrier in the Persian Gulf. 11, 2001, attacks, there were at times two different American aircraft carriers patrolling the Gulf to provide fighter jets for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and later for the battle against the Islamic State group.īut slowly, the Pentagon began to wind down the naval presence, leaving a gap of months that brought gasps from Gulf Arab states and commentators worried about Iran. In the two decades that followed the Sept. Those fears have cemented the longtime American presence in the Persian Gulf. Gulf Arab nations need the waterway to get their oil to market and worry about Iran’s intentions in the wider region. Worries over another seizure likely has left a ship allegedly carrying Iranian oil stranded off Texas as no company has yet to unload it.įor the U.S., keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping remains a priority to ensure global energy prices don’t spike, particularly as Russia’s war on Ukraine pressures markets. and its allies that the Islamic Republic has the means to retaliate, particularly as American sanctions result in the seizure of ships carrying Iranian crude oil. Some 20% of the world’s oil passes through the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the wider world.įor hard-liners in Tehran’s theocracy, the move projects power to surrounding nations as part of a wave of assaults attributed to Iran since 2019. There is no sign that diplomacy will revive the deal soon, and Iran in recent weeks has resumed harassing and seizing ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. But Washington is seeing once again that while it’s easy to get into the Middle East militarily, it’s difficult to ever get fully out - particularly as Iran now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
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