Playing with fire: Iranian warships confronting U.S. Navy in Persian Gulf on “daily basis”

(NationalSecurity.news) In 1987–88, the final years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency as well as the Iran–Iraq War, the U.S. fought an undeclared conflict with Iran involving, principally, naval and air actions.

Despite the Obama Administration’s “historic” nuclear accord with Iran, the Washington–Tehran relationship has not improved much since then, with the latter routinely engaging in some of the same kind of harassing actions today that led to direct confrontation and conflict in the past – which included the accidental downing of an Iranian civilian airliner by a U.S. Navy cruiser, USS Vincennes.

In fact, as reported by The Washington Free Beacon (WFB), which quoted a Pentagon official familiar with operations in the region, Iranian observation and harassment of U.S. Navy assets in the Persian Gulf occurs on a “nearly daily basis.”

During the encounters, American planes and warships are routinely photographed and videoed by Iranian forces for intelligence purposes, the official said, adding that most confrontation between both sides are “conducted in a safe and professional manner.”

But such encounters always carry a danger that one side could miscalculate, resulting in an exchange of fire, other experts have warned.

The disclosure of the daily encounters follows the release of video footage by the Iranian military that claims to show a reconnaissance mission over an American aircraft carrier stationed in the Strait of Hormuz. The clip, allegedly taken in late August, is accompanied by dramatic music and shows U.S. personnel aboard ship with footage of U.S. warplanes deployed topside on the carrier.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps “drones have carried out such missions many times; although the drone remains for a long time above the [American crew’s] heads, they didn’t notice it,” reported Iran’s state-controlled media at the time, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “In some cases, [the American crew] did notice the IRGC drone awhile after the filming and tried to drive it off by sending a helicopter or fighter jet after it.”

When questioned about the authenticity of the footage, the Pentagon official told the WFB that Iran routinely conducts surveillance missions and that U.S. Navy personnel are well aware of them.

“U.S. Naval forces are routinely approached by Iranian warships and aircraft as they operate in the region, with the majority of all interaction by the Iranians conducted in a safe and professional manner,” the official said. “This happens on a near daily basis.”

“The Iranians’ primary purpose for approaching U.S. forces is for ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] so these interactions are almost always characterized by the presence of Iranian photographers capturing photos and video,” the official noted.

The United States also films these encounters, the Pentagon official added.

“During these interactions we, too, capture imagery for the record,” the official said. “Safe, professional, and routine interactions are of no concern, and we are fully confident in the ability of U.S. Naval forces to defend themselves. We also publicly acknowledge those interactions with the Iranians which we consider to be unsafe.”

Follow NationalSecurity.news editor Jon E. Dougherty on Twitter and Google+.

See also:

Brookings.edu

FreeBeacon.com