NOURNEWS- Since the beginning of the Gaza war and Israel’s invasion of the enclave which has led to the death of more than 20,000 Innocent Palestinians, in a contradicting action, while preaching about the urgent need for a lasting ceasefire and peace in the region, the US as the main supporter of the Zionist regime’s genocide of the Palestinians has started a massive naval deployment in the region.
In accordance with this context, a huge US naval deployment in a wide arc of Greater West Asia is underway, stretching from Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean, into the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb into the Gulf of Aden and all the way into the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. This military campaign is a sad attempt by the US administration to regain its damaged global standing and unite the more divided than ever America due to its support of Israel.
Ship spotters first said that as of Thursday, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its escorts were sailing just outside the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Oman, and were approaching the Persian Gulf. A Pentagon official confirmed the location but would not say whether the carrier would enter the Persian Gulf passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which ultimately on Sunday, the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group transited through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf.
Regarding this development, CENTCOM said on X; “On Nov. 26, the Carrier Strike Group Eisenhower (IKECSG) completed a transit of the Strait of Hormuz to enter the waters of the Arabian Gulf as the Strike Group continues to support USCENTCOM missions,”
Of course, once again the US has shown its ignorance and its colonialism nature by calling the Persian Gulf as “Arabian Gulf”, but the subject of this current article is not focused on that part of America’s stupidity - Let's just say that this body of water was referred to as the Persian Gulf by Arab historians and geographers themselves, including the Arab Christian writer Agapius, who called it the Persian Gulf in the 10th century, but an only 247-year-old country (USA) cannot grasp these historic facts which cannot be changed by biased and politically motivated wordings. Now, let's turn our focus to the current developments.
The US naval build-up in the region consists of another carrier strike group as well, USS Ford and its escorts, which last week moved away from the Israeli coast and is now re-positioned to the south of Crete, according to ship spotters, apparently beyond the missile reach of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Apart from the two carrier strike groups, the US deployment also includes a three-ship Bataan Amphibious Ready Group with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and several guided-missile destroyers, USS Bataan (Yes, the same USS Bataan that was forced to obey the IRGC), and USS Carter Hall operating in the northern portion of the Red Sea, and USS Mesa Verde in the Eastern Mediterranean along with the command ship USS Mount Whitney. The most obvious explanation for such a formidable naval buildup is that it is part of the US effort to keep the current conflict in southern Israel and Gaza contained and try to gain its lost soft power in the region.
However, the US is failing in its goals, because before the implementation of the current ceasefire in Gaza, Hezbollah continued to fire rockets and anti-tank missiles into Israel from Lebanon; resistance groups were still attacking US bases in Iraq and Syria; and the Ansarullah movement in Yemen were firing missiles toward Israel and still continue to seize Israeli-owned or linked ships in the Red Sea. During the period since October 17, there have been at least 58 attacks on US bases, mostly in Iraq.
The hard-line opinion in the US is that the militant groups attacking the US forces are acting at Iran’s behest. This allegation is an old US-Israeli baseless narration that keeps surging whenever Iran is in the crosshairs and, or there is a requirement for a blame game.
Longtime observers estimate that the Axis of Resistance and every resistance group in the region are nationalist movements that seek to defend their national countries against occupier forces, such as the American presence in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the region, and since the beginning of the most recent conflict in the region – Gaza war – Tehran has repeatedly denied western accusations of “resistance forces being Iranian proxies”, furthermore, high officials of the country such as Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign minister of Iran, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi, the president of the country have stated and warned against the consequences of Washington’s unending support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and have always sought a permanent ceasefire in Gaza while supporting the right of the Palestinian nation for self-defense in accordance to the Protocol No. 1 of 1977 of the Geneva convention against the occupying entity which is Israel.
Interestingly, coinciding with the arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its escorts in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) issued an advisory on Thursday for vessels traveling through the approaches to Bab al Mandeb and Red Sea and specifically advising that “when choosing routes, orient toward creating maximum feasible distance from Yemeni waters.” Two days later, Yemen’s Houthis had actually seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the southern Red Sea as it was sailing from Turkey to India.
America’s unrealistic objective from its recent naval campaign range from bringing down Iran by a notch or two in the regional folklore of power dynamic; to driving a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Iran at a juncture when the rising amity between the two traditional rivals is frustrating the US plans to “integrate” Israel; re-establishing the shock and awe of US power in West Asia and globally; keeping the Red Sea shipping lines open for Israeli vessels; and, in strategic terms, dominating the waterways of the Red Sea leading to the Suez Canal.
Even more curious is the timing of the US aircraft carrier group in the Persian Gulf region. A delegation consisting of Arab and Islamic foreign ministers visited China from November 20 to 21 and held “in-depth communication and coordination” with Beijing “on ways to deescalate the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, protect civilians, and seek a just settlement of the Palestinian question.” The delegation comprised Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Jordanian deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ayman Safadi, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi, Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki and secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Hussein Brahim Taha.
The above development is a Saudi initiative. There is no question that the collective outreach by the Muslim countries to China as their principal interlocutor at the present stage of the Palestine-Israel conflict is a diplomatic rebuff to the US. Succinctly put, the Arab and Islamic countries' unity is also becoming a thorn in the flesh for President Biden at a time when the US finds it increasingly difficult to counter the international and internal condemnation of Israel’s horrific war crimes against the Palestinian people, especially in the Global South.
The Biden administration has sensed already that the Israeli operations against Hamas is not getting anywhere and may turn into a long day’s journey into night, Furthermore, the American public opinion is becoming skeptical about Biden’s handling of the situation and the US’ allies feel troubled. Indeed, Israel itself is a deeply divided house.
Meanwhile, the US’ diplomatic isolation in West Asia is touching an unprecedented level today. The big question is whether through coercion it is possible to retrieve lost ground where the crux of the matter is that the US is not trusted anymore in West Asia. Moreover, on the one Iran holds the patent for “smart power,” which it has used as a diplomatic tool through the past four decades successfully to ward off challenges from the US. On the other hand, the last time that the US tried to gain soft and political power by naval campaigning in the Persian Gulf, it led to nothing else but a shamed and defeated America.
When, after 22 months, a US warship (USS Bataan) entered the gateway to the Persian Gulf for the first time since 2021, claiming to be in the region for maritime safeguarding, as a US chopper flew off the US helicopter carrier's flight deck, it was forced by IRGC speed boats to land.
In a video dated to the time of the incident, you can hear that; “Your helicopter is in the vicinity of my vessels, sometimes going into Iranian territorial waters,” Iranian forces radioed to the American warship. “Advised to take them on your boat and do not enter… Iranian territorial waters. If you do not obey my orders, we will open fire on your helicopters, over.”Freb
Despite the US vessel asserting it was “engaged in transit passage in accordance with international law,” the helicopters returned to their ship. Despite America’s obvious attempt to regain its past foothold and political power in the region through a military presence in West Asia, its showboating will lead to nothing else but another similar situation to the incident in August, where it became obvious to every country in the region that Iran will always protect its sovereignty and national security against any country and the region does not need any foreign presence for safeguarding its security.
And as the IRGC chief General Hossein Salami said: “Regional countries of the Persian Gulf are able to maintain the security of the Persian Gulf on their own. There is absolutely no need for the presence of America or its European or non-European allies in the region”.
In accordance with the above facts, one can say that the latest naval military campaign of the US is nothing but a failed attempt by the Biden administration to regain and reestablish US hegemony in an ever-changing world that no longer buys the Western and American lies regarding their claims about human values and the West's unending support of the occupier regime has become the last nail in the US-led world order coffin, furthermore, no military campaign, nor any threat against Iran nor any politically oriented wording against historical facts about Iran can mend the international and national criticism which the US is facing.
BY: Homayoun Barkhor
NOURNEWS