US Wants Military Coalition to Guard Waters Off Iran, Yemen

Floated weeks ago as an idea that didn’t get a lot of traction, the US is once again pushing the idea of a military coalition that would commit ships to guarding the waters off the coasts of Iran and Yemen to protect traffic.

President Trump has been very keen to see other countries commit to the operation, arguing that the US should not be responsible for defending other nations’ ships in the area, through which a lot of oil traffic flows.

While the US hypes the threat posed by Iran, many others don’t see this as anywhere that big of an issue, and so far none of these nations are interested in committing their navies to defend the area.

Effectively, the US wants a naval fleet there, but doesn’t want to go to the expense of putting the ships there. Gen. Joe Dunford says that the US is willing to provide intelligence for their operations, but not ships for the escorts.

Officials tried to brush aside a failed push for this idea is June, and said that it’s only now they’ve got the full plan together to do that. There is no sign that anyone is any more interested at it, but officials are able to present it as a new idea with a new plan.