Iran has found a new way to mess with the US Navy

pulse

June 15, 2017 7:36 PM

"Perhaps this was a probing effort by Iran to determine US response and the rules of engagement."

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Iranian naval patrol boats have again conducted an "unsafe and unprofessional" encounter with the US Navy in international waters near a critical choke point for maritime traffic, but this time they took a different approach.

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"Perhaps this was a probing effort by Iran to determine US response and the rules of engagement," Lawrence Brennan, a former US Navy captain and an expert of maritime law at Fordham University, told Business Insider.

The Iranian navy has long engaged in provocative, aggressive maneuvers towards US Navy ships. In March, the USS Mahan, a guided-missile destroy, had to fire warning shots at a group of fast-approaching Iranian navy ships.

The danger of Iran's small attack craft was underscored when a similar type of ship was modified into a suicide boat used by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to damage a Saudi Arabian naval vessel.

"At least 36 incidents have been made public, including eight this year," Brennan said.

But the wide majority of these incidents occurred under former President Barack Obama, whose commitment to the Iran deal precluded most action against Iran.

Now, President Donald Trump has campaigned on making Iran pay for such provocations.

"With Iran," Trump said as a candidate in September 2016, "when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water."

Iran's new tactic of shining lasers, short of menacing US Navy ships with their attack craft, may show a calculated step in keeping the pressure on the US.

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