Iran’s Hormuz feint not out of character (Updated)

Image from the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Pentagon released a video of the the Islamic Republic’s feint against US warships in the Gulf of Hormuz;

Tehran acknowledged that the boats were Iranian and denied that its sailors had behaved recklessly.

Iran seemed certain to dominate Mr. Bush’s coming meetings with Mideast leaders even before the confrontation, because every nation on Mr. Bush’s itinerary — from Israel to Sunni Arab powers Egypt and Saudi Arabia — is alarmed by Iran’s rising influence over the region.

Many of the countries, most notably Israel, also worry that the Bush administration may be adopting a softer line toward Iran after the release of an U.S. intelligence estimate that concluded Tehran had halted its nuclear-weapons program.

It is unclear if the latest incident will reassure the Israeli and Arab leaders or alarm them further, since the U.S. sailors — while warning the Iranians that they would take “defensive measures” if the small boats didn’t turn around — allowed the Iranians to pull within a few hundred yards of the U.S. warships.

Gateway Pundit has the video, still shots and narrative. The Islamic Republic denies anything out of the ordinary happened (Associated Press link);

Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar called Western news reports that the boats threatened to blow up the U.S. warships “mischief.”

“(Iranian) navy units … asked them to identify themselves. They responded accordingly and continued their path,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Najjar as saying.

He said the encounter was normal.

“The identification of vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian navy units is a natural occurrence,” IRNA quoted Najjar as saying. “Islamic Republic of Iran navy units always put questions to passing vessels and warships at the Strait of Hormuz and they need to identify themselves. This is in accordance with the normal procedures.”

Persian language blogger Haji Washington (translation by Kamanzir the Archer) speculates that it was a tacit Iranian endorsement for the Clinton New Hampshire campaign;

If the US is telling the truth and if IRGC vessels have gotten close to the American ships, without any legitimate reason, I would argue that the IRGC likes to see Hillary Clinton as the next president of the united states of America. But why do I say so?

When Clinton voted in the senate for the recognition of the IRGC as a terrorist organization, Obama criticized her for helping those who like to start the war. The same criticism was made by Edwards and had a great impact on increasing the popularity of Obama against Clinton,. Now that Obama has won Iowa and is leading with his 39% popularity, as opposed to Clinton’s 29%, and is going to win in New Hampshire on Thursday, this report can be the winning card for Clinton.

I do hope that Clinton’s aides do not get the point.

The Islamic Republic has a history of tempting the Great Satan for political advantage. It was a few months short of twenty years ago that the Iranians flew an Airbus 300 at the USS Vincennes and disregarded warnings to avoid the heavily armed Navy craft. 300 Iranian civilians were killed in that accident (BBC link);

However, [then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff William Crowe] said, the Airbus was four miles west of the usual commercial airline route and the pilot ignored repeated radio warnings from the Vincennes to change course.

Less than an hour before the shooting down of the passenger jet, he added, the Vincennes was engaged in a gun battle with three Iranian gunboats after a helicopter from the Vincennes was fired on.

Given the mileage the mullahs got over the accident twenty years ago, I don’t blame the Navy crews for holding their fire this last weekend – they showed remarkable restraint. I’m sure the pucker factor was at critical levels, but their restraint snatched another small victory from the Islamic Republic.

Update: Kamangir the Archer translates a rather nuanced denial from the Islamic Republic that those are IRGC boats (after admitting that they were IRGC boats).

Category: Foreign Policy, Support the troops, Terror War