In his first response to last week’s Navy claims of “provocation” in Iran, President Trump tweeted on Wednesday that the US will destroy Iranian gunboats that “harass our ships at sea.” Attacking Iran boats would be an act of war.



Last week’s claim was that US ships engaged in a military exercise, off the Iranian coast, and Iranian boats got dangerously close to them. So now the idea is to further escalate to sinking those boats outright.



The Pentagon appears up for this new round of escalatory rhetoric, vowing that US forces will “come and we will come large” in acting against Iran. Pentagon officials said Trump’s statement was a “warning to the Iranians.”



Other former officials were critical of Trump’s threats, saying that it would be illegal to sink Iranian boats based on harassment, and suggesting that he is just trying to distract from the coronavirus pandemic.



Trump had previously suggested he was wary of attacking Iran because of the coronavirus, as he thought Iran being hit hard with the virus then being attacked by the US would lead to international criticism. That hasn’t stopped him from constant threats to Iran, however.



If anything, the US has spent 2020 being constantly on the brink of war with Iran over something or other, and while so far they have not escalated to where a war becomes totally unavoidable, officials seem to be eager to keep tensions right on the edge on a conflict.





Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz