DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./IRAN/IRAQ: THEIR WEAPONS BLOW UP OUR SOLDIERS & OUR MILITARY RESORTS TO TALKING VERSUS BOMBING THEM INTO OBLIVION

Despite tensions, Iran - US talk to avoid conflict
Despite tensions, Iran - US talk to avoid conflict

ABOARD THE USS NIMITZ IN THE GULF - Even as Iran and the United States face off bitterly, US Navy commanders in the Persian Gulf are working quietly to keep communications open with Iran’s military, hoping such contacts will help avert an accidental stumble into armed confrontation.

Most of the contacts take place over the crackle of radios, using the standard international bridge-to-bridge communications network, said Rear Adm. Terry Blake, commander of the strike group led by the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, speaking aboard ship this week. Others are between Iranian pilots and air communications networks.

Conversations often begin with an Iranian voice, in accented English, announcing that Iran has detected foreign planes or ships and wants to know their purpose, said the carrier’s skipper, Capt. Michael Manazir.

Hey, vessel at such and such a latitude and longitude, this is the Iranian navy. Who are you? What’s your course and speed?’ Manazir said, paraphrasing a typical call from Iran.

We say ‘Iranian navy, this is coalition warship 68. Our course is three-zero-zero at 15 knots, operating in international waters.’

Most of the conversations are brief and business-like, with little information shared.

But not every encounter is pleasant. The Iranians frequently send frigates and patrol craft or reconnaissance planes, including U.S.-made P-3 Orions, to watch the US ships.

The Navy often responds by scrambling an F/A-18 fighter to intercept and shadow Iranian planes.

They’re curious, if you will,’ Blake said. They want to understand who’s operating in the area.’
The US currently has two carriers _ the Nimitz and the USS John C. Stennis _ operating in the Gulf, often just off Iran’s coast.

The carriers and the ships in their strike groups were mostly unaffected by this week’s Cyclone Gonu, which hit Oman in the southern Arabian peninsula and brought rain to the far southern coast of Iran, but did not greatly affect Gulf waters.

In Washington, US officials have said the increased naval presence in the Gulf serves as a warning to Iran not to test US resolve at a time when the American military is busy in Iraq.
But Blake and Manazir said the second carrier was mostly part of the Navy’s contribution to the buildup of forces in Iraq since January and the continued air bombing in Afghanistan, rather than a warning to Iran.

Our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are what’s drawing our presence here, not Iran,’ Manazir said.

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1) Despite tensions, Iran - US talk to avoid conflict