With all the campaign hullabaloo this week, you might have missed even more important news about U.S. relations with Iran (unless, of course, you are a regular WORLDWIDE STANDARD reader and caught John Noonan's and Goldfarb's posts). On Monday, Reuters reported:
Iranian boats aggressively approached three U.S. Naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a main shipping route for Gulf oil, at the weekend and threatened that the ships would explode, U.S. officials said on Monday.
Iran dismissed U.S. concerns about the incident, saying it was a routine contact. But the Pentagon termed the Iranian actions "careless, reckless and potentially hostile..."
The incident occurred days before President Bush's trip to the Middle East, which according to Reuters is "partly aimed at countering Iranian influence."
Mike Nizza and Foreign Policy's Blake Hounshell had informative news roundups early Monday morning, shortly after the incident, but the news was largely lost amid tears and poll numbers in New Hampshire.
But today, more bloggers are taking note, as a video of the incident was relased by the Pentagon yesterday. The AP reported:
Small Iranian fast boats swarmed around massive U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, and a man speaking heavily accented English threatened, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode..."
The Iranian boats appeared to ignore repeated warnings from the U.S. ships, including horn blasts and radio transmissions, as the ships moved through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf.
Both Power Line and Jawa Report have the video and news links. Scott Johnson at Power Line also posted an informative email from a retired Navy man with more details, and Noah Schatman at Danger Room explains Iran's naval attack methods. And Jules Crittenden ponders Iran's motives.
Counterterrorism Blog blogger Douglas Farah praises the U.S. Navy's discipline and explains why this incident should be taken seriously: "It is not possible to know if the speedboats charging the U.S. ships in international waters were acting under orders, going for a little fun, or seriously wishing to provoke an international incident...The risk is simply too high to assume that Islamists acting on behalf of Allah will behave in a way we find rational or non-lethal."
