2008 US-Iranian naval dispute

]

In a July 8 speech to the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Shirazi, a mid-level clerical aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "The Zionist regime is pressuring White House officials to attack Iran. If they commit such a stupidity, Tel Aviv and U.S. shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran's first targets and they will be burned," according to the student news agency ISNA. [cite web |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080708/wl_nm/iran_nuclear_dc_8|title=Iran to "hit Tel Aviv, U.S. ships" if attacked|publisher=Yahoo News |date=8 July 2008]

Historical context

These inconsistencies have given rise to comparisons with the Gulf of Tonkin Incident during the Vietnam War which was used by Lyndon Johnson to provide a casus belli for escalating the conflict. Hari, Johann [http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-president-bushs-only-achievement-in-the-middle-east-is-to-increase-the-power-of-iran-769909.html Independent] ]

The presence of U.S. warships in the Strait has been a sensitive issue for Iran since July 3, 1988, when a U.S. Navy cruiser shot down an Iranian commercial flight in Iranian airspace over the Strait, killing 290 civilians, an incident for which the U.S. never apologized, though it did provide monetary compensation.cite news|publisher=Washington Post|date=2008-01-11|title=Iranian Boats May Not Have Made Radio Threat, Pentagon Says|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011000692.html|accessdate=2008-01-21]

Territorial context

To travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which at its narrowest is convert|21|nmi|km wide, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the "transit passage" provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.cite web |url=http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_historical_perspective.htm |title=The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (A historical perspective) |publisher=UN |work=Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea] Neither Iran or the U.S. have ratified the convention,cite web |url=http://www.un.org/Depts/los/reference_files/chronological_lists_of_ratifications.htm |title=Chronological lists of ratifications of, accessions and successions to the Convention and the related Agreements as at 26 October 2007 |publisher=UN |work=Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea] but the U.S. accepts the traditional navigation rules as reflected in the Convention. [citation|url=http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/58381.pdf|title=Presidential Proclamation 5030|author=U.S. President Ronald Reagan|date=March 10, 1983|accessdate=2008-01-21] Iran has stated that it reserves the "the right to require prior authorization for warships to exercise the right of innocent passage through its territorial sea." [citation|url=http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/61543.pdf|title=Limits in the Sea, National Claims to Maritime Restrictions|author=U.S. Department of State|date=May 25, 2000|accessdate=2008-01-26] It is unclear if the incident happened in the territorial waters of Iran or Oman.

ee also

*USS Typhoon encounter with Iranian Craft (April 11, 2008)
*United States-Iran relations
*2007 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel
*Millennium Challenge 2002
*Filipino Monkey
*Iran Air Flight 655
*House Resolution 362

References