Reeling from a serious coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 epidemic, Iran has pleaded with 73-year-old President Donald Trump to drop economic sanctions imposed May 8, 2018 when he cancelled former President Barack Obama July 15, 2015 Iranian Nuke Deal. Obama worked two years with 76-year-old former Secretary of State John Kerry and 60-year-old Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Since backing out the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], Iran has engaged in provocative actions in the Persian Gulf, bombing oil tankers and blowing up a Saudi Arabia oil refinery. Trump backed out the JCPOA because of Iran’s ongoing proxy war with Yemen’s Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia, also supplying arms, rockets and cash to Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon to fight U.S. ally Israel. Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to shoot down Iranian gunboats in the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Force [IRGC] commands armed-speedboats in the Gulf, occasionally harassing commercial oil tankers and U.S. warships passing through the Gulf and narrow Strait of Hormuz. When IRGC armed-speed boats surrounded a U.S. destroyer April 18, Trump announced via Twitter that the U.S. Navy should take out any provocative action. “I have instructed the U.S. Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump tweeted April 22. When Obama was commander-in chief, Iran intercepted Jan. 12, 2016 two Riverine command boats in the Persian Gulf three miles from Farsi Island. Iran detained and held 10 U.S. sailors for 24 hours before releasing the boats and sailors. All 10 U.S. sailors were disciplined by the U.S. Navy for disgraceful conduct that embarrassed the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf.
Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the release of the sailors as proof of improved relations with Iran, all because of the JCPOA. “Shows the power of diplomacy and the promise of a new engagement with Iran,” Obama said, spinning the embarrassing incident as a win for the United States. Trump made clear April 22 that there would be no repeat of the Jan. 12, 2016 incident that seized two U.S. Navy vessels and held 10 crew hostage in the Gulf. When Trump tweeted April 22 that U.S. Navy ships should “shoot down and destroy” Iranian gunboats, Trump put Iran on notice that Obama’s past mistakes would not be repeated under his watch. “I have ordered our naval forces to destroy any American terrorist force in the Persian Gulf that threatens security of Iran’s military or non-military ships,” said 60-year-old Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami. Salami ordered Iran to seize U.S. boats in 2016.
Salami claims that Iran must maintain security in the Persian Gulf, blaming the U.S. Navy for provocative actions. “Security of the Persian Gulf is a part of Iran’s strategic priorities,” Salami said, knowing that the IRGC has harassed and Limpet mined international oil tankers in the Gulf June 13, 2019. Trump knows Salami, who threatened the U.S., was the one responsible for the Jan. 12, 2126 seizure of U.S. Navy assets and Limpet mines of commercial tankers. “I am telling the Americans that we are absolutely determined and serious in defending our national security, our water borders, our shipping safety, and our security forces, and we will respond decisively to any sabotage,” Salami said, responding to Trump’s new Navy orders. “Americans have witnessed our power in the past and must learn from it,” Salami said, referring to the Jan. 12, 2016 seizure of U.S. Navy vessels.
Salami said the U.S. has “witnessed our power in the past,” but has Iran witnessed U.S. power, the same power that ended Saddam’s rein of terror in 10 days after the March 23, 2003 start of the Persian Gulf War? Iran fought Iraq to loggerheads Sept. 22, 1980 to Aug. 20, 1988, losing between the two countries up to 1 million combatants. Iran got away with murder under Obama and several other presidents since President Jimmy Carter when Iran seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran Nov. 4, 1979, holding 52 hostages 444 days until releasing them practically the minute President Ronald Reagan was sworn in Jan. 20, 1981. Salami knows that U.S. Navy ships don’t threaten Iran’s national security, they patrol international waters to assure safe shipping for 20% of the world’s oil supply that travels through the Gulf. Iran’s angry with Trump for calling Iran out for its state-sponsored terrorism in the Mideast.
Tensions between Iran and the U.S. hit a fever’s pitch when Trump ordered the Jan. 3, 2020 predator drone strike that killed 62-year-old Iran’s Al Quds Gen. Qassem Solemani and Iraq’s 62-year-old Hezbollah Chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Iran retaliated Jan 8, 2020 firing missiles at Ayn al-Assad Airbase in Iraq, injuring 110 U.S. soldiers. Trump refrained from retaliating in kind but told Iran that he reserved the right to respond at his own convenience. Iran knows not to harass U.S. Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman or anywhere else. Trump’s April 22 order to “shoot and destroy” and Iranian gunboats threatening U.S. Navy ships puts Iran on notice that what happened under Obama won’t happen again under his watch. Salami’s latest warning plays well in Iran but has no meaning anywhere else. Iran’s 81-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei knows that Trump is no Obama.
