Analysis by PMOI/MEK
July 10, 2018 – In a tweet, U.S. president Donald Trump declared that the Iranian regime’s harassment of U.S. boats in the Persian Gulf has reached zero. This shows the IRGC’s fear of potential retaliation by the U.S. government to its naval adventurism.
Iranian Harassment of U.S. Warships:
2015: 22
2016: 36
2017: 14
2018: 0Source: @USNavy
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2018
Trump’s reference is to IRGC fast boats in the Persian Gulf for the past four years. On several occasions, the U.S. Navy has reported that the Revolutionary Guards’ boats have, in violation of international norms, gotten too close to its warships in the region. During the tenure of Barrack Obama, due to the U.S. government’s tendency toward appeasing the Iranian regime, the IRGC’s boats were more daring in their adventurism.
But Trump has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate such harassments. A year ago, when one of the IRGC’s boats approached a U.S. warship, the USS Mahan, the American vessel fired warning shots at the Iranian boat.
"The Iranian vessel did not respond to repeated attempts to establish radio communications as it approached," U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement following the incident.
The U.S. naval forces have been training and conducting exercises to prepare for possible encounters with the Iranian regime’s vessels in the Persian Gulf, as well as boats that belong to its proxies such as the Houthis. When the Iranian regime feels the seriousness of the threat to its forces, it naturally retreats. As has been proven time and again, the Iranian regime only reacts to firmness.
