Tempting The Giant! Iranian Gunboats Point Machine Guns, Swarm US Warship [WATCH]

 The Islamic Republic of Iran, also known as Persia, has been a thorn in the flesh of the United States for decades.

The government of Iran is an Islamic theocracy, which believes the U.S. and all other non-Islamic nations are hell-bound Infidels, not to be trusted.

Israel is on the top of Iran’s list of nations that they must destroy, and the U.S. as Israel’s strongest ally is thus on the hate list too.

On January 13th, 2016 there was outrage over Iran forcing captured U.S. Sailors on their knees.

Iranian media released photos and videos showing the arrests of 10 U.S. sailors by the Iranian military. The American Navy members were being forced to kneel, with their hands on their heads. Iranian authorities are also seen inspecting the Navy vessels and examining their weapons. The pictures were broadcast on Iranian media and the video shows one sailor apologizing for drifting into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf.

Once again the US had a run-in with Iranian gunboats.

Iran has been suspected of using oil tankers registered to other countries in an effort to circumvent U.S. sanctions, requiring the U.S. to confiscate the vessels.

Last week a U.S. destroyer was monitoring the activity of an oil tanker.

The Iranian media is trying to make an anti-American propaganda piece out of the interactions of their small boats with the U.S. Navy. They released a video showing Iranian gunboats swarming a US warship and pointing their machine guns at it.

American military news reports:

Last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deployed gunboats in the Sea of Oman and swarmed around the U.S. Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68).

Footage of the encounter was released by Iranian media sources. The footage showed the IRGC gunboats swarming around an oil tanker and pointing machine guns at the nearby U.S. warship.

Iranian media outlets claimed the IRGC forces were stopping the U.S. from committing an act of “piracy” against an Iranian oil tanker, but that claim has been refuted by at least one U.S. official. The oil tanker in the video also appears to be a Vietnamese-flagged vessel called Sothys.

Newsweek reported a U.S. official denied that the U.S. destroyer was trying to capture the vessel and instead said the warship was merely responding to observe the incident.

“We’re refuting the Iranian claims that they prevented us from taking back this vessel,” the official said. “Here’s the bottom line: This occurred last week. U.S. naval forces in the Gulf of Oman observed Iranian naval forces seize this oil tanker.”

“There were over 10 Iranian fast boats that swarmed this thing,” the official added. “There was a helicopter seen flying around, and, bottom line, our forces responded to monitor the situation.”

The Iranian government knows the U.S. military has a long fuse and can be taunted to a degree, and they at times push the envelope to see where the end of the fuse might be.

I am glad to see cooler heads prevailed, at least this time.