Why Is Iran Launching Provocations at the United States and President Obama

With worldwide media focused on the catasthropic earthquake in Nepal, some important news stories are flying under the radar. One potentially key set of events involves ongoing naval incidents in the Arabian Sea. ~~~~~ The print media reports today that the US and Iranian navies are again facing off after Iranian forces boarded a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship in the Arabian Gulf and the American Navy dispatched a destroyer to monitor the situation. It was first reported that the cargo ship shot at and boarded by Iranian authorities flew a US flag, but it was later confirmed that the ship was the MV Maersk Tigris, a Danish-owned vessel registered in the Marshall Islands. The Pentagon said in a statement that Iranian forces boarded the ship on Tuesday morning after firing a warning shot across its bows as it was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. “The master was contacted and directed to proceed further into Iranian territorial waters. He declined and one of the Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) craft fired shots across the bridge of the Maersk Tigris,” which spokesman Colonel Steve Warren called "inappropriate." Warren said : “The master then complied with the Iranian demand and proceeded into Iranian waters in the vicinity of Larak Island.” Warren said the US Navy responded to a distress call and dispatched a Navy Destroyer, USS Farragut, which was some 60 nautical miles away, to travel to the cargo ship as quickly as possible “to observe the interaction." According to the Maersk shipping company which is in contact with the US military, on Tuesday evening the vessel was being escorted towards Bandar Abbas on the coast of Iran by Iranian patrol boats. The Pentagon says about 30 individuals are on board. At this point, no US military action is expected, aside from monitoring the situation. Warren said it was "to be determined" what the USS Farragut will do when it reaches the vicinity of the incident. ~~~~~ Yesterday, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters that the US has a security compact with the Marshall Islands on defense issues, although it has not received a "specific request" for assistance since the Tuesday incident. Rathke added that it is a key concern of the US to keep the regional shipping lanes "open and safe." Rathke said that the US believes that Iranians will "send the ship on its way." He pointed out that historically, Iran Revolutionary Guard naval forces have been more likely to be engaged in hostile contact with the shipping and military vessels in the region than the regular Iranian navy. Rathke noted that the US has been in contact with US shipping company representatives "with regard to how their vessels should respond to threatening encounters with foreign naval forces and how to contact us." ~~~~~ Even though the Strait of Hormuz is in Iranian territorial waters, "innocent passage" is applied -- ships are authorized to pass through the Strait assuming they abide by all the rules of the sea -- because it is an internationally recognized shipping lane. The Saudi Arabian Al-Arabiya media network today quoted US Energy Information Administration data stating that 17 million barrels per day, or about 30% of all seaborne-traded oil, passed through the channel in 2013. Al-Arabiya added that Iran has in the past threatened to block the Strait to show its opposition to sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. The channel is a narrow strip of water separating Oman and Iran that connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. At its narrowest point, the strait is 21 miles across and consists of 2-mile wide navigable channels for inbound and outbound shipping and a 2-mile-wide buffer zone. ~~~~~ The Maersk Tigris was, according to Iran's semi-official news agency FARS, seized at the request of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization. The vessel was seized after a relevant court order was issued, according to the source, indicating that the IPMO had monetary differences with the ship owner. But a spokesman for the Singapore-based company that manages the Tigris, Rickmers Shipmanagement, said he did not know why Iran had taken action. Spokesman Cor Radings confirmed to Danish TV that Iranian forces fired warning shots at the container ship and boarded it, and said the company was concerned for the crew. The vessel had been following a normal commercial route between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, he said. Maersk confirmed to CNN today that the crew are in satisfactory condition. ~~~~~ Early today, al-Arabiya confirmed the details of the incident. The Maersk Tigris was enroute from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. In its report, al-Arabiya pointedly noted that the incident occurred as Iran and the US seek to finalize a deal releasing Iran from severe economic sanctions in return for controls on its nuclear program. ~~~~~ The Jerusalem Post today reported on the Tigris incident, noting that the Obama administration has had several close calls with Iran at sea. The JPost said that : "The US last publicly threatened to board and inspect ships carrying Iranian arms in 2014, when a vessel under a Panama flag was sailing toward Gaza. Israel volunteered to board the ship instead, and arrested its crew." In 2011 and 2012, the Jerusalem Post said President Obama sent two aircraft carriers through the Straits of Hormuz and into the Arabian Sea in response to threats from Teheran to close the strait and disrupt the world's flow of oil. And last week, as this blog reported extensively, Obama moved the USS Theodore Roosevelt to the Gulf of Aden to “ensure the freedom of navigation” through its strait, as Iranian ships approached Yemen’s shores. ~~~~~ On a broader political line of reporting, yesterday, the Jerusalem Post noted that US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in New York to continue negotiations toward a comprehensive agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. The two men met in Zarif’s old residence, the residence of the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations, marking the first time a US statesman has entered an Iranian facility since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. After the meeting, Kerry told a conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, for which both Kerry and Zarif were in New York, : “We are, in fact, closer than ever to the good comprehensive deal that we have been seeking, and if we can get there, the entire world will be safer.” Asked whether the US believed Iran’s actions on the Tigris were related to the nuclear talks, a State Department spokesman declined to speculate, but said the US is committed to ensuring freedom of navigation in the strait. ~~~~~ What has been much less reported is the fact that there was a prior direct Iran-US naval confrontation last Friday. CNN reported today that the US Navy confirmed to it that the Friday incident occurred when a US-flagged ship was intercepted by an Iran Revolutionary Guard naval patrol. The incident occurred on Friday when four Iranian naval vessels surrounded the US-flagged Maersk Kensington in the Strait of Hormuz. A senior US military official told CNN that "the Iranians encircled the Kensington and followed the ship on its course for a period of time before withdrawing and breaking away." In the incident Friday, no shots were fired. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Iran is certainly not behaving like a country so choked by economic sanctions that it is willing to agree to surrender control of its precious nuclear program. Consider Iran's recent actions. The supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei recently joined a Teheran crowd in shouting "Death to America." Concurrently, he and Iranian President Rouhani disavowed every point listed by President Obama and Secretary Kerry as having been agreed to between Iran and the US-led P5+1 to form the basis for a formal June nuclear agreement. Iran then sent a commercial and military naval convoy into the Arabian Sea to attempt to deliver arms to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. That incident was put to rest by the presence of the American jumbo aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt. And now, we witness ongoing Iranian military harassment and seizure of commercial ships entitled to navigate the Strait of Hormuz. Do these sound like the acts of a country desperate to appease the West? Not really. It seems much more likely that Iran sees an Obama-led US as being so weak and eager for an Iranian deal that the Ayatollahs can do whatever they like without jeopardizing the deal. And, it is just possible that Iran is hoping Obama will blunder into a reaction to Iranian provocations serious enough to permit Iran to seize control of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen in an ensuing worldwide disarray. We know how big Iran's ambitions are -- it would be wise to be alert to every possibility.