CNN: Obama administration sends mixed message on Iranian ships
Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama said Tuesday evening that the U.S. is sending "very direct messages" warning Iran against attempts to supply weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
But the message to the American people has been a little more muddled. Throughout the day Tuesday, several administration spokesmen denied or downplayed any connection between U.S. warships deploying to Yemeni waters and an approaching convoy of Iranian cargo and naval ships.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf blasted "misreporting" in the news that U.S. ships in the region were tasked with monitoring or intercepting the Iranian ships nearing Yemen.
The U.S. is walking a fine line as it looks to quell the situation in Yemen. It has sought to reassure Gulf allies like Saudi Arabia that are engaged in a proxy war with Iran in Yemen -- allies that support the deposed Yemeni government that had been cooperating with the U.S. in fighting an al-Qaeda affiliate. But it is also looking to keep tensions with Iran to a minimum as American diplomats work to secure a final deal on Iran's nuclear program.
Harf dismissed the Iranian link in discussing the U.S. naval activities in the region.
Update #1: Officials giving mixed messages on why US aircraft carrier shadowing Iranian convoy -- FOX News
Update #2: Pentagon tracking Iranian convoy off coast of Yemen -- Navy Times
Update #3: Obama says U.S. has warned Iran not to send weapons to Yemen -- Reuters
WNU Editor: No one is believing the official U.S. line that US naval ships are NOT there to intercept the Iranian vessels if the need arises .... the more effective comment on this specific issue would have been "no comment".
Update #4: This interesting .... A brief history of Iran-U.S. naval altercations as tensions rise near Yemen (Washington Post).
6 comments:
This is mere speculation:
The United States' concern cannot be weapons that Iran's surrogates will use in Yemen's civil war. Both sides the that war have plenty of weapons and ways to smuggle them in.
Iran might see the chaos in Yemen as an opportunity to smuggle missiles or attack speedboats into Yemen that could be used against ships in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Iran already has the ability to interfere with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, if not to close it altogether (at least for awhile). If Iran also had the power to interfere with shipping in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait Iran would also be able to stop ships using the Suez Canal. Such a move would obviously have a major economic impact.
If any American President other than Obama were in office, I would expect that the Administration would view such an Iranian move with serious concern and would not accept it. With the President, who knows?
Mixed message from Mr Red Line?
Tell me it is not TRUE!
2 freighters might feed people in one mid to large sized city for how long?
So are they really bringing much in the way if civilian aid?
Publius,
You can slip past a picket, but how would speed boats block the Suez? they would have to sink a ship in the channel.
I guess if the Saudis and Egyptians did not have enough ships to patrol they could.
Perhaps the small boast could hug the Sudanese coast making runs at night.
Saudi Arabia would have to keep some ship around their ports and on routes to the canal to protect them they could not all be on picket duty.
Come to think about I did not see a lot naval ships in Alexandria. The ones I did see were good for hitting destroyers hard and then running. Not designed for small combat vessels
1 frigate, the Alborz,
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_murder_of_Mohammed_Abu_Khdeir
one resupply vessel, ( freighter/tanker), the Bushir,
It's not about carrying aid to Yemen, there's millions of tons of food and fuel sitting in the Gulf on NGO chartered vessels, that the Saudi's are not allowing in.
It's about forcing the illegal blockaide, making the Saudi's choose between starving the Yemeni's to death, or war with Iran.
I'm not sure why Harf, who is a State department employee, and a complete nitwit, feels compelled to comment on DoD activities.
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