US Fires Warning Shots to Stop Iran Navy Vessel in Gulf

Oubai Shahbandar was quoted in an article by Arab News regarding the US firing warning shots to stop an Iranian Navy vessel:

The USS Thunderbolt was accompanied by a number of other vessels, including those from the US Coast Guard.

Oubai Shahbandar, a Syrian-American analyst told Arab News that the Iranian objective is to take control of the strategic waterways in the Gulf.

“We saw multiple acts from the IRGC against the US Navy under the Obama administration. The difference now is that under Trump, the US Navy seems to have been authorized to push back harder against IRGC naval threats,” said Shahbandar.

The Iranian navy issued a statement on Tuesday noting that an American “battleship” moved toward one of its patrol boats in international waters in the northern Gulf and fired two shots in the air, according to Sepah News, the official news site of the IRGC.