Iran’s IRGC Shares Photos Of Destroyer Carrying American, French & Bri…
On May 21, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released photos showing United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton as it transited the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier.
On her journey through the strategic strait, the destroyer was visited by Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, Joint Commander of the French Forces Deployed in the Indian Ocean Vice Adm. Emmanuel Slaars, and United Kingdom Maritime Component Commander Commodore Philip Dennis.
Cooper said that Iranian warships came within 1,000 yards of the destroyer The IRGC later confirmed that it had observed the destroyer.
The IRGC’s photos shows Paul Hamilton transiting the strait along with USNS Amelia Earhart dry cargo ship and the ANVIL POINT ro-ro trade vessel.
The visit by Cooper, Slaars and Dennis to Paul Hamilton was clearly meant as a show of force to Iran, as tensions in the Persian Gulf remain considerably high.
Earlier this month, the U.S. announced it will increase the rotation of ships and aircraft patrolling in and around the Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized two oil tankers near the choke point, one of which was bound to Texas. The tankers were sized after the U.S. confiscated a China-bound Iranian oil shipment near southern Africa.
Iran maintains a strong presence in the Persian Gulf. Faced with the recent rapprochement between its main regional partner, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, the U.S. apparently made the decision to reach out to its top allies, France and the UK, to expand its presence in the gulf.
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