BREAKING: Getting Hairy in Hormuz: US Shoots Down Iranian Drone, Iran Confronts US Tanker

Perhaps we should adjust the timeline for action on Iran. The Iranians keep signaling they want it.

The US Navy shot down a drone launched from Iran that came too close to the USS Abraham Lincoln, in the most serious confrontation yet since the US destroyed three nuclear facilities in June:

In an emailed statement Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said the drone “aggressively approached” the aircraft carrier with “unclear intent” and it “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters.” The U.S. military says the shootdown also occurred within hours of another incident in which Iranian forces harassed a U.S.-flagged and U.S. crewed merchant vessel that was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an F-35C fighter jet from the Lincoln, which, according to U.S. Central Command, was sailing about 500 miles (800 kilometers) from Iran’s southern coast. The military’s statement noted that no American troops were harmed and no equipment was damaged.

The Iranians attempted to board a US-flagged tanker a few hours later. Six gunboats chased the Stena Imperative in the Straits of Hormuz before a destroyer in the Lincoln task force intervened:

Iranian gunboats approached a U.S. oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday and ordered the vessel to stop, a provocative move at a time when Washington is building up military forces in the region for a possible strike on Iran.

Maritime-security firm Vanguard Tech said in a message to clients that six Iranian gunboats armed with 50-caliber guns approached the tanker as it entered the strategic waterway and ordered it to kill the engines and prepare to be boarded. Instead, the vessel sped up and was later escorted by a U.S. warship.

U.S. officials confirmed armed Iranian boats tried to stop a U.S.-flagged ship and that it was escorted to safety.

These aggressive moves come at a time when Donald Trump has every incentive to direct military strikes on Iran after its massacres in the past month. Iran also balked at the talks that Turkey and Arab states have pushed to hold between the US and Iran, demanding a change of venue and a very narrow set of issues. Axios’ Barak Ravid reports that Iran seems intent on escalation:

The sources said the Iranians are walking back from understandings that were reached in recent days after several countries were already invited to participate in the talks.

• The Iranians want to move the talks from Istanbul to Oman.
• They also now want to hold them in a bilateral format, only with the U.S., rather than with several Arab and Muslim countries attending as observers.
• A source with knowledge said that’s because the Iranians want to limit the talks to nuclear issues and not discuss things like missiles and proxy groups that are priorities for other countries in the region.

How do you say “Let’s get it on” without saying “Let’s get it on”?

This is a strange moment to escalate. That may have made more sense before the Lincoln task group arrived in the Persian Gulf, and before the Pentagon began shifting ballistic-missile defenses into the theater. The US has completed much of its offensive and defensive preparations now and is just bolstering its capabilities. The Iranian demands to change the context of the talks risk losing the cooperation of the Arab states, and the stupid attempts to attack American ships in the Straits of Hormuz may make it impossible for these states to withhold support in an American response. 

Iran is basically daring Trump to launch an attack. Trump may not have needed much encouragement on that choice. We’ll keep an eye on developments, but this may have moved the decision point forward significantly. 

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

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