28 Mar 2024
Wednesday 26 July 2017 - 17:15
Story Code : 269933

'Persian Gulf is No Place for US Navy' - Military expert



Sputnik News- A US Navy patrol boat fired warning shots on Tuesday near an Iranian vessel in the Persian Gulf. Tehran slammed the incident as a provocation. In an interview with Sputnik, military expert Dmitry Litovkin said that the mere presence of US warships in the Gulf is fraught with unpredictable consequences.




Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)blamed the American vessel, the USS Thunderbolt, forprovoking the tense encounter.

It said that the US ship had come dangerously close tothe Iranian naval ship ona patrol mission ininternational waters the north ofthe Gulf, and fired two warning shots with the intention ofprovoking and intimidating the Iranian sailors.

According toIrans Press TV, the Iranian ship ignored the Americans provocative and unprofessional act and proceeded withits mission. The IRGC later said that the US ship had left the area.

In an interview withRadio Sputnik, military expert, Captain 3rd Rank, Dmitry Litovkin said that there is no place forthe US Navy inthe Persian Gulf.
The Persian Gulf is very far away fromUS territorial waters. Still, it was the American ship that opened fire. Iran is washed bythe Persian Gulf and has a security zone there, which it controls. What the US Navy is doing there is a very big question, Litovkin said.


He added that the Americans have several big naval bases inthe region, which apparently control oil traffic inthe Gulf.

From the standpoint ofthe International Law ofthe Seas, the Americans actions inthe Gulf are absolutely illegal. What are they doing there? They are conducting a military operation inIraq and trying toimpose democracy onSyria. All the other countries inthe region which are againstthis are thus seen asbeing inthe way, Litovkin noted.

He said that the US was doing much the same inother parts ofthe globe.

I remember how a Russian fighter jet buzzed a US destroyer inthe Black Sea, turning onits electronic jammer and forcing the shocked Americans tobeat a hasty retreat. However, it was the US ship approaching our shores, not our pane flying towardsthe US coast. Its a case ofwho is athome and who is not, Dmitry Litovkin emphasized.

In a similar incident inAugust, Pentagon officials said Iranian speedboats had harassed US warships inthe Strait ofHormuz. They claimed that Iranian boats moved close totwo US Navy destroyers withtheir weapons uncovered inthe strait inan unsafe and unprofessional encounter.

Based onthe United Nations Convention onLaw ofthe Sea (UNCLOS), Iran has the right to decisively confront any menacing passage throughthe Strait ofHormuz, according toIRGC second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami then told Press TV.

https://theiranproject.com/vdcbf9b5frhb09p.4eur.html
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Robert Wheeler
Sounds very russian