TEHRAN- The U.S. saber-rattling march of power in West Asia is nothing novel but has maintained a new façade by the deployment of F-16s in a bid to allegedly curtail the military hand of Iran.

A senior defense official said on Friday that the United States is boosting its deployment of fighter planes in the vital Strait of Hormuz to defend ships from Iranian alleged snatchings and that the U.S. is getting more worried about the developing relations between Iran, Russia, and Syria in West Asia, according to Associated Press. 

The official told reporters at the Pentagon that this weekend, additional F-16 fighter planes will join the A-10 attack aircraft that have been patrolling the Persian Gulf region for almost a week.

The news comes as Iran and other Persian Gulf littoral nations have emphasized time and time again that the deployment of foreign forces will only increase regional instability and that the security of the region should be upheld by the littoral states.

AP purportedly said that after Iran attempted to seize two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz last weeks, Washington is beefing up its military presence in the region. 

In response to the U.S. announcement, an informed Iranian defense source denied the charges that Tehran was attempting to seize control of two ships.

In April, Iranian authorities detained two tankers in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman within a week, one for a legal complaint by a private plaintiff and the another for a marine mishap involving an Iranian fishing ship.

The U.S. Navy has frequently intercepted oil cargoes and ships under Iranian control that were headed to other nations in recent years, claiming that its restrictions against Iran’s oil exports are justified.

Iran maintains that the presence of U.S. military ships in the Persian Gulf waterway poses a perilous danger to the security in the region.

Just recently the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy seized a foreign oil ship carrying over a million gallons of illicit fuel in the Persian Gulf.

The large haul of illicit petroleum was intercepted on June 6 at Iran’s southern maritime border, the commander of the IRGC Navy’s second naval zone told reporters.

The foreign vessel was getting military assistance from U.S. troops, according to General Ramezan Zirahi, but alertness, professional action, power, and precise response by the IRGC Navy aborted the Americans’ unlawful and unprofessional actions in the Persian Gulf.

He said that as Iranian soldiers were inspecting the “NADA 2” oil ship, which was systematically smuggling gas oil out of Iran, American forces engaged in a number of risky and unprofessional actions to thwart the legitimate seizure of the fuel.

During the operation, the IRGC servicemen discovered that the oil tanker’s captain was calling the U.S. command and control center to make plans for an escape, according to General Zirahi.

In an attempt to thwart the seizure operation, the Americans sent two A-10 combat aircraft, a P-8A reconnaissance plane, two Hawk-C helicopters, an MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle and patrol vessels to the area, the IRGC general explained.

Also in May, an Iranian oil ship that had been illegally stolen by a foreign firm five years ago was retaken in a joint operation by the IRGC Navy and the Intelligence Ministry.

The 10,000-ton oil tanker Purity has returned to Iranian territorial waters as a result of a court order and the joint operation by the IRGC Navy and Intelligence Ministry, according to Mojtaba Qahremani, head of the justice department in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan.

“The seized 10,000-ton oil tanker Purity had been illegally leased to a foreigner by falsifying documents since 2018 and its Iranian owners were deprived of the benefits of the oil tanker,” Qahremani added.

The ship was said to have docked in Iran’s Assaluyeh Port on the Persian Gulf’s westernmost coast to have its fuel consignments unloaded.

Late in October 2022, forces from the IRGC’s first naval zone also captured a foreign tanker that was carrying 11 million gallons of illegal fuel in the Persian Gulf.

The Islamic Republic has said unequivocally that the Persian Gulf would never be a safe haven for smugglers. 

As a result, several assaults on Iranian and international tankers have been hindered by the IRGC Navy over the last years.

Over the last 4 decades, the U.S. has made attempts to impede Iran’s diplomatic and military progress but has failed in the totality of its aims. 

In line with this policy regard, the U.S. navy has conducted a myriad of plots to halt the flow of oil in the Persian Gulf by confiscating oil tankers but has blamed Iran for its actions. However, they are trapped in oblivion that Iran is voracious to encounter all kinds of threats. 

In other words, Iranians never kowtow to bullying. In other words, threats have no place in the courageous hearts of Persian people.     

Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the IRGC Navy, stated in June that since Iran and its southern neighbors are working together there is no need for trans-regional forces to protect the strategic waterway of the Persian Gulf.

Admiral Tangsiri said the countries in the region own the Persian Gulf and are responsible for ensuring its security.

Iran has welcomed and will continue to welcome the strategic principle of allying and forming the community of Persian Gulf countries, he said, adding Tehran’s policy has always been de-escalation and this has been demonstrated in practice.

He reaffirmed the IRGC Navy’s valiant forces’ successful accomplishments in their fundamental duty to stabilize the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.