While President Biden and his administration play footsie with Iran about its nuclear ambitions, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard military speedboat had a confrontation with a U.S. Navy warship on Monday.
Prior to the Monday incident, on March 4, three Guard ships taunted Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels for two hours near the Persian Gulf, as a Guard’s catamaran came within 25 yards of the USCGC Robert Goldman.
On Monday, a high-speed Guard Boghammar, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboat, sped directly toward the Cyclone-class patrol ship USS Sirocco and Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport USNS Choctaw County.
“The two U.S. Coast Guard cutters issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and deployed warning flares,” the Navy said, according to Associated Press.
“The Sirocco repeatedly blows its horn at the Boghammar, which turns away as it closes in,” the AP reported, adding, “The Navy said the Boghammar came within 50 yards (45 meters) of the Sirocco, raising the risk of the vessels running into each other. The overall encounter lasted about an hour, the Navy said.”
“The IRGCN’s actions did not meet international standards of professional or safe maritime behavior, increasing the risk of miscalculation and collision,” the U.S. Navy stated.
At some point we should probably start talking about how the Biden administration spent 18 months letting Iran restore its economy and get to nuclear breakout, and now the Iranians are challenging our Navy. It's the second time in the last few months. https://t.co/Euesexm6Ri
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) June 21, 2022
“The Navy did not elaborate on why it did not announce the previous incident, particularly since a larger vessel came even closer to an American warship. However, that was just as a deal in Vienna between Iran and world powers on restoring the nuclear deal looked possible, before the talks broke down,” the AP noted.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted Biden on Sunday vis-a-vis Iran, asserting, “The stability that we had built during our four years has now just been squandered and thrown away. They’re putting us all at risk. … When you side with the Iranians, when you side with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, against Israel, and against Saudi Arabia, and against the Emirates, those leaders of those countries no longer have confidence in the United States.”
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is now using 166 advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Fordo facility to further enrich uranium.
“The development, which was contained in a United Nations nuclear watchdog report that was obtained by Reuters, comes after the overwhelming majority of nations on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors condemned Iran for failing to explain why uranium traces were found at sites Iran did not disclose,” The Daily Wire reported.
“IAEA inspectors verified on Saturday that Iran was ready to feed uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, the material centrifuges enrich, into the second of two cascades, or clusters, of IR-6 centrifuges installed at Fordow, a site dug into mountain” Reuters reported. “Iran informed the IAEA on Monday that passivation of the cascade, a process that precedes enrichment and also involves feeding UF6 into the machines, had begun on Sunday.”