President Donald Trump has ordered the American military to shoot and destroy any Iranian vessels that harass US navy ships, as tensions rise in the Gulf in the wake of the record collapse in crude oil prices.
“I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning, without providing any more detail about the order.
The Pentagon last week said 11 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy boats had come very close to US navy and coast guard ships in the Gulf, in manoeuvres that the US military described as “dangerous”.
While the Trump administration had expressed concern about the incident, the order comes as the White House struggles to deal with the collapse in crude oil prices as economies contract following shutdowns designed to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Mr Trump on Saturday said he did not see evidence of countries around the world — including Iran, Russia, China and North Korea — taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to provoke the US military.
“I don’t see it. No, I don’t see it,” Mr Trump responded to a question at a White House press conference. “Iran was a terror when I came into office. Right now, they don’t want to mess around with us.”
John Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser and advocate of regime change in Iran, last week responded to the Iranian actions by calling on Mr Trump to make a stronger response to the Iranian moves.
“The repeated dangerous & provocative behaviour by Iran’s navy against US ships on the Gulf is unacceptable,” Mr Bolton tweeted. “We have been too lenient in responding to these incidents — that must change. US must not be passive, but act to re-establish deterrence.”
