Speaking at a press briefing today, Centcom commander Gen. Joseph Votel claimed an “uptick in confrontations by Iranian vessels in the Arabian Gulf,” insisting that US Naval forces operating off the coast of Iran are prepared to “defend themselves” and “improve stability and security in the region.”
This comes after two minor incidents in which Iran sent speedboats out into visual range of US warships parked off the Iranian coast. In one of the two incidents, the US warship fired “warning shots” at the Iranian speedboat, and the US issued public complaints.
Gen. Votel’s comments are largely a continuation of the complaints, but a lot of the resultant attention is likely to be in Gen. Votel referring to the Persian Gulf as “the Arabian Gulf” in a public press conference, as officially the United States still recognizes the historical name.
That is not to say it is unprecedented. Several US allies in the region, Arab states, prefer to call it he Arabian Gulf, and there have been military directives instructing US troops to use that term when deployed in the area. It is not, however, generally used in public statements, and Votel was at the Pentagon when making these comments, not deployed to Bahrain.
Persian Gulf is used almost exclusively in the Western world, and indeed has been for many centuries, and the Arabian Gulf only really began to have any momentum in the 1960s. Some US officials have tried to split the difference by simply referring to it as “the Gulf.”
For awhile the Shah tried to rename it the “Gulf of Iran,” but no one paid any attention to him.
“…US Naval forces…off the coast of Iran…“defend
themselves” and “improve stability and security in the region.””
First, the US Naval forces off the coast of Iran are not there to “improve stability and security in the region.” Quite the opposite, I think. But that’s the group think they want to imprint on the masses back home…you know, that ole “Global Force for Good!” meme.
Second, I had to laugh when the focus of the article quickly shifted from what Votel didn’t say to the shibboleth usage of the Persian Gulf.
America just waiting for a reason to DEFEND ITSELF won’t be long before you here about Iranian vessels being shelled by an M-50 we’re just trying to avoid any aggression…if American miltary lives are threatened can’t stand down like the last incident so SELF DEFENSE TIME…USA
Pathetic.
Yea anybody full of conspiracy theories from idiotland is pathetic…Grow a pair and add a comment with some value or at least some substance…
“…waiting for a reason to DEFEND ITSELF…”
Even if they have to manufacture it themselves.
OMG, they are close enough we can SEE them! Oh no, now my Navy Whites just turned brown again. We can actually see boats from a neutral country as we sail provocatively off their shores and rename oceans after their enemy. How dare they get close enough that we can see them? We don’t know how to handle this without another billion dollar ship.
Much of the Persian gulf is bordered by Iran. It’s their coastal waters. In contrast, the US is operating 6000 miles away from any US territory. So, who is the aggressor here?
Mike, anything new on Wolfgang Halbig? Can’t find anything
Word is his family was threatened to make him shut down.
Thx I don’t think we’re gonna make it to the end of the year wo major FF. Perfect storm brewing. Things accelerating. BTW me and you about same age 68 here. Been on WRH since turn of century. Keep up the good work.
The US could easily avoid any problems by just minding it’s own business and getting out of other peoples’ countries, but as long as it thinks it has some privileged right to interfere anywhere on earth they see fit there is no way to make it evident, as there none so blind as those who refuse to see.
It takes some temerity to travel 6,000 miles from home and start dictating terms to sovereign nations in their won backyard. but the with their recent declaration (something everyone already knew) that they are now supporting Al Qaeda it is no wonder that a state supporting terrorism should be belligerent.
I doubt Iran would really be happy to see us leave the Gulf, seeing as how we are protecting their oil shipments. Meanwhile it gives them a chance to call us evil.
Iran could say the same about the US if they ran their navy up and down the the US coastline.
Why is the US taxpayer paying billions of dollars to protect corporate interests around the world? Corporations should be billed for this service or provide their own security.
There’s a fantasy/fictional map some war party functionary drew up that depicts Iran as having been Balkanized, thus reducing its coastline.
They’re attempting to simply erase the history, culture, and societies they don’t like and replace them with jihadists and MIC apparatchik.
The only people who call it the arabian gulf are those paid by the saudis
anyone with the slightest familiarity with geography know the name of this body of water and that it has borne that name for a thousand years
Maybe the assholes in the pentagon can shoot down another Iranian airliner and blame it on Putin.