Iran and China Follies
Iran menaces merchant ships, and Chinese planes and warships threaten US military planes and ships.
Iran Menaces Merchant Ships
British and US Navy vessels scrambled to assist a merchant vessel harassed by Iranian fast-attack boats in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday.
The HMS Lancaster and USS McFaul scrambled to intercept the Iranian fast-boats crewed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident. The Lancaster launched a helicopter to dissuade the Iranian boats from attempting to board the commercial ship.
The boats took off.
Chinese Warship Comes Within Yards of a US Naval Destroyer
A Chinese warship came within yards of a US Naval destroyer in the Taiwan Strait. This is how things go under Joe Biden. We invite the world’s tyrants to become more tyrannical when no one watches the store. I still say there is no way Democrats are serious about rerunning Biden. They have something in store.
Reuters:
The encounter comes as both countries trade blame for not holding military talks – with disagreements between the two over everything from trade and Taiwan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and raises the spectre of future face-offs that could spiral out of control.
The U.S. military said the USS Chung-Hoon, a destroyer, and Canada’s HSMC Montreal, a frigate, were conducting a “routine” transit of the strait on Saturday when the Chinese ship cut in front of the U.S. vessel, coming within 150 yards (137 metres).
Before This, A Plane Conducted a Dangerous Maneuver
A Chinese fighter jet carried out an ‘unnecessarily aggressive’ maneuver near a US military plane over the South China Sea — “in international airspace” — according to the US #Taiwan pic.twitter.com/Pgm97bdJu9
— Ed (@reFocusZone) May 31, 2023
‘Aggressive’ is how US officials describe a Chinese fighter jet’s move past a US surveillance plane over the South #China Sea. Intercepts like this aren’t uncommon (I was on board for one) but video of this close encounter shows a maneuver known as ‘thumping’. @TODAYshow @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/Zu79yyYaIf
— Janis Mackey Frayer (@janisfrayer) June 1, 2023
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