The decision, the details of which are expected to be released by the Pentagon in the coming days, is intended to be a response to Iran’s seizure of merchant ships in the region.
The United States will take “a series of actions to strengthen its defense posture in the Gulf,” a White House spokesman announced today.
The decision, the details of which are expected to be made public within the next few days by the Pentagon, is intended to be a response to Iran’s seizure of merchant ships in the region.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms actions that threaten and disrupt commercial shipping in the Middle East,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing.
“For the past two years, Iran has harassed, attacked and disrupted” commercial shipping in these waters,” he said, assuring that Washington “will not allow foreign or regional powers to jeopardize freedom of navigation” in the region.
The US 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, later said it was “working with allies and partners in the region to increase rotational patrols by ships and aircraft” in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic Gulf waterway. . In his statement he says that on May 3 the Panamanian-flagged tanker Niovi was seized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy while passing through the Strait of Hormuz. This incident occurred a few days after Iran seized an oil tanker with the flag of the Marshall Islands and bound for the USA, in the Gulf of Oman.
Nearly a fifth of the world’s crude oil and oil products pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a hub between Iran and Oman, according to data analytics firm Vortexa.
Source :Skai
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