US Warship Observing Iranian Military Excercises.
Comments By Iran's Rear Admiral.
A US warship sat observing Iranian naval operations not far from the Strait Of Hormuz was given a warning to keep its distance while the Iranians tested new destroyers, subs and missiles launchers.
Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the Americans had been given a warning to keep out of the way to allow Iran to conduct its naval excercises. Sayyari said the warning given to the Americans was in accordance with international law to move all military or civilian shipping out of the way while another conducted military tests. Sayyari continued that the excercises were being carried out to show Iran's military prowess on the high seas and to ensure it could protect its area of water it controlled around its coast and also to show the world it could protect international shipping too.
All this comes on the heels of the incident where American sailors accidently so reports say strayed into Iranian waters and were captured by Revoluntionary Guard naval units. The Americans were released unharmed however and John Kerry who apparently gets on well with his Iranian counterpart said there would be no further problem. Later the Iranians made account the Americans had apologised for being in Iranian waters but the Americans denied this.
Also the US along with other nations including the UK have recently lifted sanctions against Iran which has seen the Iranian President Rouhani on a visit to Italy chasing business deals now Iran is free to trade on the open market again with the lifting of sanctions. Subsequently though on a more sourer note Obama put in place new sanctions on the Islamic Republic because it had been testing ballistic missiles something as I said in an earlier article seemed to trouble Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei.
Washington for its part has said nothing about the incident where Iran warned off the Americans but Sayyari went on to say the American warship left the area after the warning and had also warned other nations ships that were probably like the Americans keeping an eye on exactly what the Iranians were up to and see what naval hardware they had on display.
Despite the conclusion of the nuke deal and the lifting of sanctions on the nation formally known as Persia tension probably still does remain under the surface between the West and Iran. Certainly for Netanyahu and Israel Iran remains a threat not only to its security but to the security of the region also for the Saudis Iran remains a problem as both sides back different sides in the Yemen/Syria conflict.
By default though Iran and the West are on the same side in the Syria conflict fighting Islamic State so to sum up Western/Iranian relations is hard right now as there are good things in the air but possible bad ones too.
