NEW YORK – The Iranian military’s behaviour in the Gulf has changed “acrossthe board” in recent months, the US Navy said on Thursday, after years oftensions in the busy waterway.
Commander Bill Urban, spokesman for the Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet,said there had been no “unsafe or unprofessional” interactions with theIranians at sea since August 14, 2017 when an Iranian drone with no lightson flew close to US aircraft operating in the Gulf.
It “is a substantial period time since then, and something that we think isgreat,” Urban told reporters.
Last year and in 2016, the US Navy complained repeatedly about thebehaviour of Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels, which would often shadowand steer towards US ships.
In at least one incident, US sailors had to fire flares and warning shotsbefore the Iranians turned away.
Urban said that since then, the Iranians have stopped approaching soclosely.
“We have seen an across-the-board change in behaviour,” Urban said.
“I don’t necessarily have a reason for that but it’s pretty clear that it’ssomething they are consciously doing.”
The change comes amid increased rhetoric from Washington about Iran’s“malign influence” in the region and US President Donald Trump’s persistentrailing against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The Fifth Fleet and its associated task forces patrol the Gulf continuouslyand inspect some of the ships passing through.
In 2016, navy personnel seized weapons, including machine guns and rocketlaunchers, they suspected were headed from Iran to Yemen.
Urban said task forces this year have seized record amounts of heroin, someof which may have been from the Taliban, Afghanistan’s biggest militantgroup.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards is a paramilitary force that answersdirectly to the Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In January 2016, the Iranians briefly captured the crew of two small USpatrol boats that strayed into Iranian waters.
The 10 US sailors were released 24 hours later. – APP/AFP