US beefs up Gulf deployment over Iran oil tanker threat

MANAMA, Bahrain: As Iranian seizures threaten oil tankers plying the Gulf, the United States is raising its military presence in the region.

Three thousand additional US personnel on troop-landing warships have already passed through the Red Sea, and US-led maritime forces are warning ships against approaching Iranian waters.

The moves follow a spate of capture and attempted capture of ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the U-shaped gateway to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea that carries a fifth of world oil output.

“There is a heightened threat, a heightened risk to regional mariners in terms of seizures” by Iran in the strait, said Commander Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

“Right now, our focus is on… increasing our presence in and near the Strait of Hormuz to ensure security and stability in a very critical waterway,” Hawkins told AFP at the US Naval base in Bahrain.

The attacks on tankers came at a time of troubled relations between Washington and its Gulf allies, who have long relied on US protection for their oil assets.

The US military says Iran has either seized or attempted to take nearly 20 internationally flagged ships in the region in the past two years.

Most recently, Washington said its forces blocked two attempts by Iran to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman on July 5. In April and early May, Iran seized two tankers within a week in regional waters.

On Saturday, a US-led naval coalition issued an advisory for commercial ships to “transit as far away” from Iran’s waters as possible in what Hawkins called a “prudent step” in light of recent seizures.

Less than a week earlier, 3,000 US Marines and sailors arrived in the Red Sea on board the USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall warships, which can ferry troops ashore by aircraft and landing craft.

Washington had already promised fighter jets and said it deployed A-10 Warthog warplanes.

The buildup, according to Hawkins, affords Washington “more robust forces where needed”.

They are in addition to the more than 30,000 US troops already in the Middle East.