The United States is boosting its military presence in Gulf waters to deter Iran's increasing threats to ships and oil tankers, in a step aimed at enhancing Washington’s role in protecting the strategic region.
After arriving earlier this week in the Gulf of Oman, the USS Bataan and the USS Carter approached the Strait of Hormuz, boarding about 3,000 US soldiers to join the US bases in the Gulf.
US-led maritime forces are warning ships against approaching Iranian waters.
The moves follow a spate of seizure and attempted seizure of ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea that holds a fifth of world oil output.
The spokesman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, Commander Tim Hawkins, said that there is a “heightened threat and risk to regional mariners in terms of seizures” by Iran in the strait.
"Right now, our focus is on ... increasing our presence in and near the Strait of Hormuz to ensure security and stability in a critical waterway," Hawkins told AFP at the US naval base in Bahrain.
The attacks on tankers came during troubled relations between Washington and its Gulf allies, who have long relied on US protection for their oil assets and chafed at a perceived military drawdown.
According to the US military, Iran has seized or attempted to take nearly 20 ships in the region in the past two years.
Most recently, Washington said its forces prevented two Iranian attempts to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman on July 5.
Iran seized two tankers within a week in regional waters in April and May.
Last Friday, the US-led naval coalition in the Gulf region warned ships sailing in the Strait of Hormuz to “transit as far away” from Iran’s waters as possible to avoid being detained.
A few days earlier, Washington announced the arrival of more than 3,000 US Marines and sailors to the Middle East on board warships as part of a plan to boost the military presence in the region, which it confirmed aims to deter Iran from seizing ships and oil tankers.
According to Hawkins, the military build-up provides Washington with "more robust forces where needed," noting that the new elements have joined more than 30,000 US soldiers stationed in various regions of the Middle East.
Although the US previously sent troop reinforcements to the Gulf, including in 2019, as a response to Iran tensions, Washington is now considering unprecedented measures.
In early August, a US official said in press statements that his country was preparing to place Marines and Navy personnel on board commercial tankers crossing the Gulf as part of an additional defense plan.
"We have sailors; we have Marines trained here in the region to carry out whatever mission they are tasked with," Hawkins said.
The military build-up coincides with a deal that took place a few days ago between the administration of President Joe Biden and the Iranian leadership regarding the exchange of prisoners and the liberation of Iranian funds that were frozen in South Korea under US sanctions.
Experts and diplomats said the agreement could help boost efforts to address concerns, but tensions could remain.
The Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) spokesman, Ramazan Sharif, as saying last week that his country “can reciprocate any vicious act by the US, such as seizing ships.”
On August 2, the IRGC conducted maneuvers on the occupied Emirati island of Abu Musa, including training in deploying combat forces and operationalizing and equipping new IRGC boats with 600km-range missiles.
The maneuvers came amid diplomatic tension between Tehran and Moscow after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) welcomed an Emirati initiative to reach a peaceful solution to the issue of the three occupied islands through bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The UAE and Tehran claim the islands Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb, but Iran has held them since 1971.
The spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, told the Tasnim news that his country does not “pull any punches with anyone regarding the three islands, and these islands belong to Iran.”
He accused Western countries of seeking to raise the issue to justify their presence in the region, saying they want to prove their presence to be legitimate under certain pretexts and stay in the Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and regional waters of West Asia.
“Your presence is illegal, and you must leave the region,” he asserted.
- Bolstering alliances
Dina Arakji, an associate analyst at Control Risks consultancy, called the increased US presence a "shift in posture."
"The move by the US likely aims to reassure Gulf Arab states that Washington remains committed to the region's security," Arakji said.
"Increased Iranian hostility and Chinese engagement with the region has caught Washington's attention," she added, noting the US "now aims to bolster its alliances."
Despite the prisoner deal earlier this month, separate attempts to revive a landmark 2015 nuclear pact with Tehran have effectively collapsed.
"With no sign of a diplomatic agreement between the US and Iran, the only alternative is more effective deterrence," said Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.
But "the perception that the US isn't doing enough to deter Iranian attacks against international shipping will persist" as long as incidents continue.
