January 22-2016
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says the seizure of two small US Navy boats proves Iran’s “might” and “power.”
“This shows Iran’s power as we powerfully seized the military vessels of the world’s biggest military power and then freed its personnel powerfully after assessing their entry into our territorial waters was unintentional,” Araqchi said last Wednesday.
“This is a sign of our might,” he said.
Following the capture, US and French vessels made what Pasdar Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi called “excited and unprofessional moves.”
The US Navy said it launched some helicopters to hunt for the missing boats and told Iran by radio that the choppers would be looking in Iranian territorial waters. The Pasdaran complained of those flights but did not tell the US Navy they were holding the boats and crew members.
“The USS Truman aircraft carrier showed unprofessional moves for 40 minutes after the detention of the trespassers, while we were highly prepared with our coast-to-ship missiles, missile-launching speedboats and our numerous capabilities” and were ready to strike the Americans in case they made a hostile move, Fadavi said after Iran released the 10 sailors (which the Iranian media generally called marines).
Fadavi complained that the US ships made many “show-off” moves near Iran’s sea borders. He never explained what he meant, but presumably he was referring to the helicopters on the search mission entering Iran’s airspace.
“But we communicated an announcement through the international [radio] systems and prevented any further irresponsible moves by them,” he said. “Then they came to realize the Pasdar Navy has the first and the last word here in the Persian Gulf.”
He said, “The American and French aircraft carriers were within our range and if they had continued their unprofessional moves, they would have been afflicted with such a catastrophe that they have never experienced all throughout history,” ignoring the fact that he would just have started a war.
“They could have been shot, and, if they were, they would have been destroyed,” he said. It is unlikely either carrier would have been sunk, but both would have been very seriously damaged if hit by an Iranian missile.
Fadavi asserted that the Pasdaran are in charge of the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf and “we exercise Iran’s right of sovereignty powerfully.” No one, however, is “in charge” of the strait, which is an international waterway.
“The US and its Navy should rest assured that they won’t be the winner of any battle with Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz as destruction and sinking of their warships will be the end result of any such war. But in those 40 minutes [after capture of the two US boats], the Americans were clearly under intense psychological pressure and they did not act like a professional and responsible force,” Fadavi asserted.
