U.S. Shouldn’t Ignore Iran’s Speedboat Threat: Jeffrey Goldberg

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- This February, a U.S. Navy P-3Orion surveillance plane, on routine patrol over thePersian Gulf, drew some unwelcome attention. An Iranianaircraft made such a close pass that the American pilotsreported that they could see the faces of their Iranianadversaries. The Pentagon was quickly notified of the near-collision.

Two months later, the British warship HMS Iron Duke,patrolling the waters off Bahrain, was suddenly challengedby an approaching speedboat. Every sailor in every Westernnavy is acquainted with the al-Qaeda suicide-boat attack onthe USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, in which 17 Americans werekilled, so the Iron Duke’s crew was quickly ordered to firewarning shots to the side of the speedboat. The two men inthe approaching craft took the suggestion to heart, andsped away. The identities of the men are unknown, but someBritish and U.S. officials reached the highly plausibleconclusion that they were part of the growing navy of theIranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.