US warships ratchet up tensions in Middle East

By Dennis Etler

(Dennis Etler is an American political analyst with a decades-long interest in international affairs. He is a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California.)

Like a wolf about to pounce on its prey, claiming that it is doing so in self defense, National Security Adviser John Bolton said the US administration was sending an aircraft carrier to the Middle East “in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings.” It is, however, the US that is preparing for a possible attack on Iranian forces, not vice versa, yet Bolton cynically claims that the US was “not seeking war” with Iran.

In fact, the US has been waging war with Iran ever since the victory of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Since the election of the Zionist Trump administration, the US war against Iran has escalated both economically and diplomatically. The effort is to wreck the Iranian economy and isolate Iran internationally with sanctions and embargoes. The actions of the US are acts of war meant to instigate “regime change” and lack any legitimacy.

Iran does not pose a threat to the US or its allies. The reverse is true, it is US allies in the Middle East, including Israel and Saudi Arabia who are sworn enemies of Iran and seek its destruction as an independent sovereign state, instead of wishing it to once again to become a willing US vassal as it was under the Shah.

PressTV-US sends carrier, bomber to Mideast amid rising tensions

The US says it is deploying an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in a "clear and unmistakable" message to Iran.

Whatever supposed “escalatory actions” that the US says have occurred in the region by Iran are a direct response to US threats and provocations. The Trump administration says that it wants to negotiate a “new deal” with Iran to replace the internationally-recognized Iranian nuclear deal negotiated under the auspices of the UN.

The so-called “new deal” would be for Iran to unconditionally surrender its sovereignty by limiting its ballistic missile program and what officials call its alleged “malign behavior” across the Middle East. In other words, Iran should surrender its ability to defend itself and pursue a foreign policy that conforms to the wishes of the US, converting Iran from a free and independent sovereign state into a willing vassal of US Imperialism, Israeli Zionism and Saudi Salafism.

If the US thinks that Iran will submit to its threats of aggression, it will be sorely disappointed. Iran will only become more resolved in its resistance. History should have taught the US ruling class that its bullying tactics and war-mongering will lead only to its own ignominious defeat and humiliation.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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