Are the US Navy and Iran headed for a showdown?

U.S. Navy officials reported that three Iranian attack craft harassed two U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz on June 20. In response to the approaching ships, a U.S. Navy warship fired a warning flare. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fast attack crafts approached the U.S. ships in international waters, according to U.S. Navy officials.

A video being widely circulated by news outlets depicts a small IRGC Boghammar vessel turning head-on toward the USS Sirocco. The Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport USNS Choctaw County was also positioned dangerously close to the Iranian vessels during this encounter. The IRGC’s boats’ “dangerous” and “unsafe and unprofessional” behavior comes amidst escalating tensions between U.S. and Iran.

Iran Incidents Continue to Mount

Following Monday’s incident, the U.S. Navy also publicized a similar encounter that occurred in March. According to the Navy, three IRGC ships remained dangerously close to U.S. Naval and Coast Guard vessels as they traveled through the Strait of Hormuz to exit the Persian Gulf. In this incident, the Navy said that “The two U.S. Coast Guard cutters issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and deployed warning flares.”

The Strait is a strategic geographic chokepoint that sees large portions of the world’s oil supplies pass through its waters. Nearly a fifth of the globe’s oil consumption ventures through the Strait, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Tehran has launched attacks targeting international vessels in the region in the past, aiming to demonstrate its capability to interrupt the flow of oil and upset the global economic market.

Iran Demonstrates Its Power to Disrupt

In recent years, the IRGC has perpetuated several attacks targeting international vessels off the Omani coast. In 2021, Iran was suspected of carrying out an attack targeting an Israeli-managed tanker in the Gulf of Oman. The U.S., Israel, and the UK blamed Iran for the attack, which killed two crew members. Two years earlier, four commercial ships were attacked off the port of Fujairah. Two of the tanks were owned by Saudi Arabia and one by the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to its tanker attacks, the IRGC targeted a U.S. Naval vessel in 2021. In November, the Pentagon reported that an Iranian helicopter had come within 25 feet of the USS Essex (LHS-2) in the Gulf of Oman. Flying as low as ten feet off the water’s surface, the helicopter circled the Essex three times. These provocations have coincided with attempts to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna. The joint U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations have recently halted, and Tehran is rapidly approaching its nuclear breakout time.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. covertly coordinates with Israel’s Defense Forces when it carries out some of its airstrikes targeting Iranian assets in Syria. The IDF has targeted drone factories and weapons-smuggling routes in Syria that have aided Iran and its regional proxies. America’s reported collaboration or at least knowledge of operations that destroyed Iranian assets could have catalyzed this escalatory incident at sea. Iran typically employs acts of retaliation against its adversaries.