The issue of the nuclear program is in the background of a series of maritime incidents.
While the world is watching Ukraine and Niger, on August 7, 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the strengthening of its military presence in the Persian Gulf. The reason was Iran’s attempts to seize two merchant ships in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. Two weeks later, Tehran threatened to shoot down US helicopters if they violated its territorial waters.
This exchange of military notices is an example of the tension that exists in that part of the planet. The war of nerves between the Iranians and the Americans occurs with periodic naval incidents such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s attempt to intercept a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in May, or the attack on a Israeli ship by drones from Tehran in February 2023. .
The Iranians and Americans periodically accuse each other of responsibility for these incidents, while blaming the other side for the danger to security and stability in the waters of the Persian Gulf.
Here the risk of direct conflict between the two countries seems to be higher. The Crisis Group’s report on Hormuz stated this, “unlike most other points of conflict between the US and Iran in the Middle East, which involve their respective local allies, the prospect of an incident in naval in the “Persian Gulf may bring Tehran and Washington. in direct confrontation.”
In fact, the naval battles between the navies of Iran and the United States began back in what is known as Tanker War (Tanker War) in the 80s. Its peak was surgery Praying Mantis (praying mantis) on April 18, 1988, with the US Navy’s most important naval battle since World War II, as indicated by the US Naval Institute.
To better understand the current scenario, we need to go back five years. “The backdrop of these incidents is the withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear deal announced by President Trump in 2018,” he explained in esglobal Fernando Ibáñez, expert in Maritime Security and Defense at the University of Zaragoza.
Ibáñez continues his analysis by ensuring that “Iran takes advantage, in fact, of this type of hybrid or gray zone actions to show its ability to create tensions in a critical sea route and increasing, in turn, its ability to attract attention and pressure “at the negotiating table.”
These expert-discussed diplomatic conversations aim to…
