China, Russia and Iran hold joint naval drills in Gulf of Oman, NSC’s Kirby isn’t concerned
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Once again, the Biden Administration is factoring itself out of a critical global event.
With Russia demonstrating its determination by threatening to use nuclear weapons, along with its suspension of a nuclear arms control treaty and its threat to resume nuclear tests, there’s a big reason to be concerned. Add to that the fact that Iran has issued a threat that designating its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group will be seen as an act of war. And that China just brokered a groundbreaking deal that saw Iran and Saudi Arabia resume ties. Biden’s America remains as clueless as ever and has now descended to the role of a global jester.
The threat of a world war is real. Meanwhile, Kirby downplays the China-Russia-Iran deadly alliance that is holding joint military naval drills in the Gulf of Oman. Let’s also keep in mind Iran’s determination to obliterate Israel and China’s ambition to invade Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also conducted military drills ahead of its call for a third intifada:
Speaking after large-scale military drills were held in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, Abu Hamza threatened that “the Islamic Jihad will cause the stupid enemy to be worn down by launching rockets in its direction, since the organization has many other means of warfare that will hurt the enemy.”
Will Kirby claim that PIJ conducting drills is merely routine, too?
“China, Russia, Iran hold joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman,” Associated Press, March 15, 2023:
BEIJING (AP) — Naval forces from China, Iran and Russia — countries at odds with the United States — are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, China’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Other countries are also taking part in the “Security Bond-2023” exercises, the ministry said without giving details. Iran, Pakistan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all have coastline along the waterbody lying at the mouth of the strategic Persian Gulf.
“This exercise will help deepen practical cooperation between the participating countries’ navies … and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability,” the ministry statement said.
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday that the White House was not concerned by the joint training exercise. Kirby said the U.S. and other nations conduct training exercises all the time and this won’t be the first time that the Russians and Chinese have trained together.
“We’re going to watch it, we’ll monitor it, obviously, to make sure that there’s no threat resulting from this training exercise to our national security interests or those of our allies and partners in the region,” Kirby said on CNN. “But nations train. We do it all the time. We’ll watch it as best we can.”
The exercises scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China over a range of issues, including China’s refusal to criticize Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and continuing support for the Russian economy.
The U.S. and its allies have condemned the invasion, imposed punishing economic sanctions on Russia and supplied Ukraine with defensive arms. Iran and the U.S. have been adversaries since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and the taking of U.S. diplomats as hostages.
China has dispatched the guided missile destroyer Nanning to take part in the drills centered on search and rescue at sea and other non-combat missions. China maintains its only foreign military base, complete with a navy pier, in the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti, located just across the Gulf of Oman.
The three countries held similar drills last year and in 2019, underscoring China’s growing military and political links with nations that have been largely shunned by the U.S. and its partners.
Last week, China hosted talks between Iran and its chief Middle Eastern rival Saudi Arabia that resulted in an agreement between them Friday to restore full diplomatic relations after seven years of tensions…….