New naval incident in the Persian Gulf

The waters of the Persian Gulf are still rough. In recent hours, there has been another episode of the tug-of-war between Tehran and Washington over control of the maritime space between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.

According to an official statement from the U.S. Navy, eleven boats belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have approached in a “dangerous and harassing” manner, in their own words, six ships of their fleet that were carrying out maneuvers. The ships in question are the USS Lewis B. Puller, the USS Paul Hamilton, the USS Firebolt, the USS Sirocco, the USCGC Wrangell and the USCGC Maui. They belong, respectively, to the Fifth Fleet and the United States Coast Guard.

The Navy claims that the ships were sailing in international waters in the Persian Gulf, where they were conducting military exercises along with several Apache attack helicopters. At the time, as many as 11 Iranian ships approached them. They executed several passes at high speed, sailing very close to the bow and stern of the ships. In the case of the USCGC Maui, they came within ten meters of each other.

The movements lasted for about an hour, when the American ships contacted the command. They communicated their decision to halt the manoeuvres and move away from the area. 

The U.S. Navy describes the behavior of the Iranian ships as “dangerous and provocative” and states that “their actions increased the risk of miscalculation and collision”. It further argues that such behavior is not in accordance with traditional navigational customs and rules stipulated by the Convention on International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea (COLREGS), nor is it defensible under the principle that allows measures to be taken to protect other ships.

In its communication to the media, the Navy warns that U.S. naval forces remain on alert and are trained to act “in a professional manner” and assisted by the principle of self-defense if necessary.

Although the incident has been settled without human or material damage, it may have some major consequences in the mid- and long-term. This new clash between the two countries, declared enemies, increases a tension that, since last summer, has only intensified. At that time, the Iranian fleet retained several oil tankers in its waters, including the Stena Impero. 

In response, the United States launched Operation Sentinel, with support from countries such as Bahrain, Australia and the United Kingdom, within the framework of which a joint naval force was created to ensure the transit of vessels through the waters of the Straits of Ormuz and its surroundings.

When it seemed that the tension had been calming down, Donald Trump's administration launched, in the first days of 2020, an air attack on Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Forces of the Revolutionary Guard, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of the People's Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an armed group operating in Iraq under the orders of Tehran.

Over the past month, exchanges of air strikes - of Iraqi militias based in Taji - and of the International Coalition of Shiite Militias, have been ongoing and it does not look like the dynamics will change in the coming weeks. 

It is true that direct clashes, such as the one that occurred in the waters of the Persian Gulf in the last few hours, are quite rare. However, such an episode could trigger consequences of a different nature, such as a resurgence of the asymmetric war in Iraq, where the situation is already quite delicate.