U.S. Guided-missile Submarine Sails Into Persian Gulf

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“We strongly refute @SecPompeo’s irresponsible anti-#Iran accusations, which blatantly aim to create tension,” Khatibzadeh tweeted. “Iran rejects any attack on diplomatic missions. The U.S. military presence is the source of instability in our region. No amount of spin can divert blame for its evils.”

Although some observers have made a connection between that event and the decision to send U.S. ships into the Persian Gulf, a Navy official told Fox News that these warship movements into the gulf were “long-planned” and were not in response to the embassy attack. 

However, the timing of the mission may have been influenced by the upcoming anniversary on January 3 of the Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani., commander of the Quds Force, one of five branches of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

U.S. officials justified the strike on Soleimani, claiming it was necessary to stop an “imminent attack.” Some U.S. officials expressed concern that Iran may use the anniversary of Solemani’s killing to carry out a strike on U.S. interests.

Tensions between Iran and nations relying on the ability to safely ship LNG (liquefied natural gas) and oil through the Strait of Hormuz have been heightened in recent years, especially after attacks on two oil tankers (one Taiwanese and the other Japanese) moving through the strait in June 2019.

Then-National Security Advisor John Bolton blamed Iran for both attacks, claiming that the rogue country was “almost certainly” responsible for those attacks. Bolton asked rhetorically “Who else would you think is doing it?”

Former Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), who was a leading non-interventionist during his time in Congress, complained of the desire for foreign intervention among many U.S. policymakers, “The U.S. foreign policy establishment has for decades been dominated by neoconservative interventionists and falsely-named ‘humanitarian’ interventionists. These people believe that because the United States is the one ‘exceptional nation,’ no conflict anywhere in the world could possibly be solved without our butting our noses into it.”

Paul continued, “U.S. policy toward Iran is an unwise consistency and the Trump administration is hopelessly floundering on the bad advice of the neocons. They want nothing more than war on Iran. But the American people do not. It’s time to end this failed policy of confrontation with Iran.”