Washington: In a tough message following the harassment by Iran’s 11 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels to six US warships in the Persian Gulf on April 15, US President Donald Trump tweeted while instructing US Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats.
“I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump tweeted.
At the Pentagon on April 22, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen John Hyten, a former commander of US nuclear and space forces, welcomed Trump’s tweet as a useful warning to Iran. He drew a parallel between last week’s naval encounter in the Gulf and April 22 space launch, which said was “just another example of Iranian malign behavior.”
“And it goes right along with the harassment from the fastboats. … You put those two things together and it’s just more examples of Iranian malign behavior and misbehavior,” Hyten said.
Iran considers the heavy US military presence in the West Asia a threat to its security.
Trump did not cite a specific Iranian provocation in his tweet or provide details. Senior Pentagon officials gave no indication that Trump had directed a fundamental change in military policy on Iran.
“The president issued an important warning to the Iranians,” David Norquist, the deputy secretary of defense, said at a Pentagon news conference when asked about the tweet. “What he was emphasising is, all of our ships retain the right of self defence.” Norquist called the tweet “a very useful thing.”
Officials from US Central Command and US Navy Forces Central Command could not immediately be reached for comment.
The 11 Iranian ships carried out an “unsafe” and “unprofessional” interaction with the following US warships: the expeditionary mobile base vessel Lewis B Puller, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Paul Hamilton, Cyclone-class of coastal patrol boat Firebolt, Cyclone-class patrol ship Sirocco, and Coast Guard ships Wrangell and Maui.
NAVCENT said the Iranian ships “repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of the US vessels at extremely close range and high speeds” and even came within 50 yard “closest point of approach” of the Puller and 10 yards of Maui’s bow.
The ships’ crews attempted to warn the Iranian vessels using “bridge-to-bridge radio, five short blasts from the ships’ horns and long range acoustic noise maker devices,” NAVCENT said.
After roughly an hour, Iranian ships responded to the bridge-to-bridge radio signals and “manoeuvred away from the US ships,” NAVCENT detailed.
Gen Kenneth F McKenzie Jr, the commander of US Central Command, warned in March that tensions with Tehran have not come down and may be exacerbated by the high number of COVID-19 deaths in Iran. McKenzie said CENTCOM believed Iran was under-reporting the number of COVID-19 deaths inside the country.
He cautioned that virus may be increasing pressure on Iranian leaders that could push the authoritarian regime to turn outward “to marshal against a common foe.”
