Just a few weeks back the US Navy's nuclear attack submarine the USS Connecticut suffered serious damage when it approached too close to a Naval Base on China's Hainan Island. Talk is the Chinese had hit the US submarine either with a drone or some anti-submarine weapon. The damaged submarine was forced to surface and sail back to safety on the surface - which is a serious embarrassment for a submarine, especially a US nuclear sub.
Then here is news plus some embarrassing video, of two US Navy destroyers (USS 'The Sullivans' (68)? and USS Michael Murphy (112?), being chased away by Iranian motorboats in the Sea of Oman. First some news :
Iranian Navy reclaimed oil cargo that US Navy confiscated from Iranian tanker
The Iranian Navy thwarted the confiscation operation by the Americans.
US Navy interdicted Iranian oil tanker and confiscated the oil.
US Navy then transferred the Iranian oil to another tanker.
Iranian heliborne forces landed on tanker’s deck, took control of the vessel, and steered it towards Iran’s territorial waters.
Iran Navy landed on the tanker and took it back to Iran.
US Navy chased the oil tanker but failed after Iran Navy's firm action.
US Navy tried to block the oil tanker’s path but their attempt failed.
The oil tanker is now in Iran’s territorial waters.
Iran is under US sanctions.
This is not first time US Navy has confiscated Iranian oil.
US Navy seized four Iranian tankers in August 2020.
More than a million barrels of Iranian oil were confiscated and sold by US
My comments : In August 2020 the US Navy had "confiscated" more than 1.0 million barrels of Iranian oil from FOUR Iranian oil takers. The US then sold the "confiscated" Iranian oil and kept the money.
They tried to do it again one more time here. This time the Iranians sent their patrol ships and motorboats, landed helicopter borne troops on an oil tanker and took back their ship load of oil.
(No matter how you look at it this was piracy committed by the US Navy. Part of the information above - about the US Navy confiscating Iranian oil from FOUR tankers in 2020 - is taken from the Jerusalem Post).
The US Navy has simply denied that this incident ever took place. The US Navy says 'an incident happened' and the US Navy just observed what was going on.
But in the video below you can clearly see the US Navy destroyer sailing dangerously close to that huge oil tanker. The US Navy was trying to repossess the oil tanker from Iranian commandos who had already landed on the tanker.
You can see how dangerously close the US Navy came to the oil tanker in the still shot below:
The other point to note is that this incident took place on October 24th, 2021. That was 12 days ago. But the US Navy kept this incident a secret until the Iranians released the video and the news (about two days ago) which then forced the US Navy to release their statement (about just observing what was going on).
Despite having such firepower the US Navy could not and did not use their firepower to "enforce" their sanctions against Iran (in the Sea of Oman, near Iranian waters).
The US Navy blinked. The Iranians were able to send their Navy and their troops (in tiny patrol boats and motor speed boats) and helicopter borne troops to seize back their oil shipment.
The US Navy was not able to stop them.
Either the US Navy has lost their resolve or they are baiting the Iranians to become more aggressive. Either way this is not good for the Americans.
The views expressed are those of the writers’ and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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