The issue between the United States and Iran took a\ndangerous turn after two ships were attacked in the Gulf of Oman. One of them\nis operated by a Japanese company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tankers were attacked on Thursday, the day Japanese\nPrime Minister Shinzo Abe met Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and\nPresident Hassan Rhouhani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration blames Iran for the\nattack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c{It was not an accident that the Japanese tanker was\nattacked,” said Alireza Nader, head of the New Iran Foundation, a Washington-based\nthink tank opposed to the Islamic Republic. \u201cIran is saying to the world we are\nable to disrupt the world\u2019s oil markets and we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, not everybody believes the story. Mark Cancian, a\ndefense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a\nformer Marine colonel with decades of practical knowledge of naval warfare,\nsaid: ” You have to fully understand what happened before you start\nshooting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Department of Defense will be reluctant to retaliate until\nthey are certain what happened and who fired on whom, and why,\u201d Cancian\ndeclared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States is boosting up the naval and air force\ncapable of striking Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf last month after the\nWhite House said it had information about possible future attacks against US\ninterests. The Pentagon did not say on Thursday whether there were plans to\nspeed up the measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nader and cancian think it is possible to blame the Houthis,\na group of rebels are funded by Iran, plunged into a civil war in Yemen. If\nthat\u2019s the case, \u201cthe U.S. will not want to get involved in a shooting war over\nYemen,\u201d said Cancian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may take days, weeks or months for the army to find the\nforensic evidence needed to find out who is behind the attack. But if it is\nfound to be Iran, Cancian believes that US forces in the region will take swift\naction against the Iranian navy. “The U.S. has assets designed to take on\nRussia and China. Iran\u2019s ships are very exposed. I\u2019d expect the U.S. would be\nable to sink Iran\u2019s navy in about two days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are, however, problems with military planners. Iran\nhas invested in a fleet of small speedboats capable of attacking large US\nships. Military planners describe this as a “first-minute threat”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce the shooting starts, those smaller boats will be the\nfirst target of the U.S. Navy.\u201d, said Cancian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran, according to Nader, is currently facing a lot of\npressure because of a new wave of US sanctions. \u201cThe regime is desperate\nbecause the economy is being choked off,\u201d he declared. \u201cKhamenei and Iranian\nofficials did not realize how hard sanctions would hurt oil, petrochemicals,\nsteel and minerals, the core of Iran\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the second timerecently that Iran has been blamed for attacking international cargo\nships. Last month, four ships were hit by landmines off the coast of the United\nArab Emirates. The landmines are magnetic and are often attached to a ship by\nan underwater attack team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although it is too early to determine this, there is\nspeculation that similar mines were used in this latest attack after being put\non the docked tankers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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