War is now restarting in the straight of Hermoose. Just this morning, Iranian ships tried to break the US blockade and they failed horribly. USJ took out the ship so they cannot even move anymore. And now Iranian officials are crying that “hey, US is trying to derail the negotiations.”
US military this morning carried out more air strikes, hitting several empty tankers trying to break the US blockade. Now, this comes on top of attacks that took place yesterday where US wiped out Iranian missile depots and Iranian drone depots that were situated on the coast of the street of Hermoose. So, before we get into what happened this morning, let’s quickly look at what took place last night.
Here on the map, you can see all the regions that the United States targeted yesterday. This includes Bundar Abbas port which is a very important port. Kasam Island which is an island that Iran has been using to basically monitor what goes on in the state of Hermoose. Then of course we have Bunder Karan and Garuk.
According to the official statement, American strikes on Thursday hit Iranian drone launch sites as well as coastal defense cruise missile sites and radars. In fact, initially UAT had no plans to do all this because they were respecting the ceasefire. But when US warships got close to the straight of Hermoose, Iran started launching missiles, drones and small boats at the warships.
This is when US responded and they carried out defensive strikes so Iran cannot attack other ships and other US warships in the future. Here’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio explaining why these strikes were necessary. Take a listen.
“Well, I guess but the point is if uh if there’s not much seizing in the firing because we we”
“Well, you should ask that of the Iranians. Don’t ask me. We didn’t fire. They fired on us. My point is, if you fire at a US Navy ship, what are we supposed to do? Say, ‘Oh, there’s a ceasefire. We’re not going to shoot down your drone.’ That’s a stupid question. That’s a stupid position to take. Of course, we fired back at them. They were shooting at us. That’s what I would expect to do. Only stupid countries don’t shoot back when you’re shot at, and we’re not a stupid country.”
“Do you expect that there or have you conveyed any red lines to Iran where, you know, if the ceasefire or whatever you call it, um, if they”
“Well, the red line is clear. They threaten Americans, they’re going to get blown up. I mean, that’s the that’s how much clearer can you be than that? If you fire on it, if you are a missile launching guy, whatever they call that job, and you’re sitting there and you fire a missile at the United States and we saw you fire it, we’re going to hit you. Of course, we are. Who doesn’t do that? Unless you want to get your ship sunk, we’re not going to let our ships get sunk by the na by the Iranians with their little, you know, their drones that they’re firing. You know, they don’t have a navy anymore, but they bring out these little Boston wher fishing boats and they try to swarm you. We’re going to blow those boats up if they’re coming towards our boats. I don’t know if that’s a red line, but I hope they know it is by now. So, if I were one of these Iranians on a fast boat and they tell you, ‘Hey, your mission is to go go after a US destroyer,’ you’re probably not going to survive. I think that’s a red line.”
Now, the funniest part of this whole situation is that all this time Iranian politicians have been saying that, “Hey, we don’t want to negotiate. We’re winning this war. We don’t want to negotiate. We’re winning this war.” And as soon as the United States attacks their whatever they have, they don’t have a navy. They have small boats as Marco Rubio just said and they have some drone sites and lawn sites.
And now as soon as the US attacks Iranian sites, Iranians are like, “Hey guys, I thought we were negotiating. Why are you attacking us during negotiations?” This is exactly what happened with the Iranian foreign minister statement that came out right after this attack. Take a look.
“Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US opts for a reckless military adventure. Is it a crude pressure tactic or the result of a spoiler once again duping president into another quagmire? Whatever the cause is, outcome is the same. Iranians never bow to pressure.”
He also goes on to say in this image that he posted with the statement, “The CIA is wrong. Our missile inventory and launcher capacity are not at 75% compared to February 28. The correct figure is at 120%. As for our readiness to defend our people, it’s at 1,000%.”
Now, I’m not sure what their missile capacity is. I’m sure intelligence people have lot more knowledge than, you know, a random YouTuber. But my question is simple. If Iran’s capacity is at 120%, meaning they have more missiles now than when the war started, why was Iran slowing down on missile launches at the end of the war? Why were they saving missiles if their capacity was increasing every single day?
So, this is simple. The words that coming out from Iranian statements are not matching the actions that they were carrying out during the war. And personally speaking, I put less of a weight on what the Iranians are saying and more on what they are doing.
Then after the statement last night, we also had Iranians attacking the UAE once again. This is the second time or maybe the third time Iran has attacked the UAE since the ceasefire has begun. Luckily, all the missiles and drones that Iran fired were taken down, but the debris did end up injuring three people, according to the UAE Defense Ministry. They also point out that since the war began, UAE air defenses have intercepted roughly 500 ballistic missiles, 30 cruise missiles, and over 2,200 drones, resulting in more than 200 injuries.
On the flip side of this, US air defenses are holding up really, really good. You know how we know this? Well, every country in the Gulf is buying these air defenses at a record pace. Take a look at this. Secretary of State Marco Rubio just approved $25 billion in emergency weapon sales to Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. Triple the 8.6 billion initially disclosed. The package includes large number of Patriot missile interceptors. Though delivery could take years due to limited US production capacity, there’s more demand for this than we have the actual supply.
For Iran, on the other hand, the bad news just doesn’t stop. Take a look at what the Central Command just put out this morning. There are currently more than 70 tankers that US forces are preventing from entering or leaving Iranian ports. These commercial ships have capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated $13 billion.
Because of the US blockade, Iran is missing out on billions of dollars in oil revenue that it so desperately needs at a time like this. And of course, on top of the money, another thing Iran needs is more oil storing capacity. So they want some of these empty tankers that are in the international waters to come back to Iran in ports so Iran can use them as a floating oil depot. Meaning they can load up the oil on these tankers and let it sit.
This gives Iran more breathing room and they don’t have to shut in their oil fuels if they can just get more storage. Otherwise, if they do have to shut in the oil fuels, that means they can lose out on a lot of money and a lot of oil revenue in the future. Well, guess what? The US blockade is also going after this specific situation.
Just this morning, two vessels, two tankers were trying to get back into Iranian port so they can load up on oil. But unfortunately, they were not able to get past the US blockade. Take a look at this statement.
“US forces disabled motor tanker Sea Star 3 and motor tanker Sevida on May 8th prior to both vessels entering an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman in violation of the ongoing US blockade. Central Command enforced blockade measures against two Iranian flagged unladden oil tankers attempting to pull into Iranian port. A US Navy F-18 Super Hornet from USS George HW Bush disabled both tankers after firing precision munitions into their smoke stacks, preventing non-compliant ships from entering Iran.”
In fact, I think this is the footage that they released that you guys are seeing on your screen. And on top of that, US forces also disabled Iranian flagged motor tanker Hassana on May 6th as it attempted to sail to an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman. And again, they used F-18 Super Hornet from USS Abraham Lincoln, disabling the unladden oil tanker routers by firing several rounds from a 20mm cannon gun. All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran.
For the Iranian regime, this is a major issue because they need the tankers to come back even if they’re empty. so they can load up the oil. And it seems the situation is getting so desperate inside of the country that they’re resorting to just dumping oil in the ocean. We have some evidence of this already happening. But before we look at that, now, let’s look at this satellite imagery.
Suspected major oil spill detected near Iran’s Car Island export hub. According to satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters, researchers say that the slick covered roughly 45 km west of Car Island, the terminal that handles about 90% of Iranian oil exports. The cause remains unknown as tensions continue in the Gulf amid clashes between US and Iranian forces and ongoing naval blockades.
Now, I’m not an oil expert at all, and I’m not sure if this was a mistake or deliberate. Only thing I know is Iran is getting very close to running out of storage and they need some kind of way to, you know, dispel that pressure. They need some kind of way to let go of that pressure. And now we are seeing this.
Again, just to be the counter to my own argument, there has been a lot of fighting going on in the state of Vermouth. So, this could clearly be a mistake. Only time will tell what this is. If we continue seeing more and more oil in the ocean, I think we can safely say that this wasn’t a mistake. This may be a new strategy for Iran just so they don’t have to shut off their oil fields.
Now to fight back against all this, Iran has tried attacking or even seizing ships in the straight of Hermoose or in the Persian Gulf. But unfortunately, even that is not going according to plan. Yesterday, Iran attacked an oil tanker that turned out to be a Chinese oil tanker. And now today, China is very mad about this. Take a look at their statement.
“China said its nationals were among the crew of an oil tanker attacked this week near the state of Hermoose. Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the Chinese crew were on board the vessel struck by Iran on Monday. As of now, no casualties among the crew have been reported. Beijing warned that the escalating hostilities between Iran and the United States are disrupting one of the most critical maritime corridors. China is deeply concerned that a large number of vessels and crew members have been stranded in the strait for months.”
And guess what? This morning, the situation became even worse. Iranian Navy just seized a Chinese-owned oil tanker in the Sea of Oman. According to Iranian media, which posted a video of this whole operation, by the way, the oil tanker seized was called Ocean Koi. This vessel was actually carrying Iranian oil when it was seized by Iranian Navy. And on top of that, it is owned by a Shanghai based Ocean Kudo shipping company, which has actually been sanctioned by the United States.
So, I have no clue what’s going on. I don’t understand if this is just Iran trying to act tough by just sanctioning one of their own tankers or there’s something else happening that we don’t know about. But what Iran is doing is positive for the United States. They’re seizing a sanctioned tanker that’s owned by a Chinese company and a tanker that’s carrying Iranian oil.
So, very fishy stuff, but not sure what’s going on as of right now. To me, this just seems like Iran flexing fake muscles by seizing one of their own ships just to tell or just to, you know, give a message to other tankers and other cargo ships that, “hey, don’t go through the straight of Hermoose, otherwise we can take over your ship just like we did with this ship.”
This is the Iranian way of telling everyone that, “hey, Straight of Hermoose is under Iranian control. It’s under Iranian sovereignity. It’s part of their territory,” when in reality that’s not something other countries in the world, not just the United States, other European countries and of course other Asian countries are willing to accept. Take a listen to Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking about this.
“And I don’t understand why anybody would not be supportive of that and he doesn’t understand and rightfully so would be supportive of that. But here’s a more fundamental problem. Iran now claims that they own that they have a right to control an international waterway. They claim that they have a right to control it. What is the world going to do about that? Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway? Because if the world is prepared to accept that, then be ready because there’s like 10 other countries that are going to start doing the same thing in their international waterways or in international waterways near their countries. That’s an unacceptable nor thing that they’re trying to normalize. So if the answer is no, we don’t think Iran should be able to control the straits of Hormuz, then the next question is going to be for everyone. But what are you going to do about it?”
Now to understand why Iran is behaving the way it’s behaving right now, we have to go back and look at how Iran got to where it is today. That doesn’t just mean going back to 1979 when the Islamic Revolution took place. In fact, we have to go further back to when the Kger dynasty was ruling Iran in the 19th century and look at how the decisions the ruling class made back then still affects Iran to this very day.
Well, guess what? That’s exactly what we’re doing in our multi-part podcast that just came out today. So, if you’re someone who’s interested in the history of Iran and how we got to where we are today, definitely go check it out. You can watch it by clicking the links in the description or you can just watch it by clicking the end screen on your screen. Basically, clicking the video that’s on your screen.
