Persian Gulf

King Salman, the leader of the Saudi regime has changed the succession to the throne bypassing now former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in favour of newly appointed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Salman is widely seen as the man responsible for Saudi’s increasingly radical and destabilising foreign policy moves including the Saudi war on Yemen and the increased covert funding to Salafist terror groups. Many also claim that he is the architect of the current boycott of fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member state Qatar.

The Saudi regime has stepped up its propaganda war against Iran by issuing a statement implying that members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were captured in Saudi waters near a Saudi off-shore oil rig.
The statement reads,

Yesterday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched a ballistic missile attack on terrorist targets in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
The attack on ISIS targets is of course legal as Iran is a member of the Syrian led anti-terrorist coalition which includes Russia. The attack also came as the Iranian and Chinese navies were conducting joint military drills in the Persian Gulf.
READ MORE: PERSIAN GULF: Chinese and Iranian Navies in joint drills

A contingent of the Chinese Navy, the second biggest and in many ways the most modern in the world, has entered the Persian Gulf for joint exercises with the Iranian Navy.
Although China is generally far less vocal about Middle Eastern affairs than the other two of the three world super-powers, Russia and the United States, China’s position and alignment in the Middle East is clear. China has relations with all countries of the Middle East and does commerce with most of them as indeed China is the undisputed king of world commerce.

U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets take off for mission in Iraq from the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, in the Persian Gulf, Monday, Aug. 11, 2014.
The USS George H.W. Bush, an American aircraft carrier parked perpetually off the coast of Iran, appears to have attracted the attention of Iran, and officials say that Iran’s use of surveillance drones to keep an eye on the massive US warship is a “nuisance.”

The USS Mahan, a guided-missile destroyer, moves up the Hudson River in New York. (Photo: Ed Bailey/AP)
US warships have made a habit of wandering around in the Persian Gulf just off the coast of Iran, waiting for Iranian Naval ships to get sort of close, then complain in the international media how “unprofessional” that was. Today, the USS Mahan took it a step further, firing a “warning flare” at the Iranian ship.

(COMMONDREAMS) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday lifted the government’s human rights restrictions on arms sales to Bahrain, in a move that Amnesty International called “galling” and “a dangerous signal.”

An incident allegedly occurred in the Strait of Hormuz on March 6th between a US naval vessel and several Iranian patrol boats (or “fast attack” boats – in case you need help deciding the aggressor).
Here’s the account from Reuters, citing the US Navy:

A U.S. military policeman stands in front of a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jet at the Siauliai airbase, some 230 km (144 miles) east of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. (AP/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Al-Manar | April 1, 2014

Top Israeli and US military officials discussed on Monday the possibility of “security cooperation” between the Zionist entity and some Arab states in the Persian Gulf.
The New York Times reported that a meeting took place on Monday between Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Gen. Martin Dempsey, visiting chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in al-Quds.