Two oil tankers traveling in the Persian Gulf out of the Straits of Hormuz were attacker earlier today and The United States believes it was by Iran.  According to CNN…

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for an attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, saying the assessment was based on intelligence, but offered no evidence to support his claim.

“It is the assessment by the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today,” Pompeo said in specially scheduled remarks at the State Department Thursday, as investigations into the attacks were beginning.

“This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication,” Pompeo said.

This comes on the heels of 4 tankers being attacked in May by the same method. Magnetic mines being attached to the hulls of the ship.

The timing of the attack seems odd being Japanese Prime Minister Abe is in Tehran for talks with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Why in the world would the Iranians attack a ship bound for Japan when their head of state is visiting? Why would the Iranians attack any ship going through the Gulf?

Mostly because they think this makes them players on the world stage They have done this in the past when they want to show how tough they think they are when they are not getting their way on the international stage. The United States will have to do what it has done before, beef up our patrols in the area to make sure ships can travel safely through.

The other option, of course, is that we reenter into the disaster that was the Obama-Iran deal which gave the Ayatollah a ton of cash and gave us assurances ( wink wink) that they would not build a nuke for ten years. Could have been for ten months but John Kerry won’t tell us the details.

That Trump decided to pull America out of the Obama deal might be having a bigger impact than we have been lead to believe on the Iranians. If they decide this is the route they want to pursue that won’t end well for them.

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