“We will maintain and manage the security of the Strait of Hormuz with all our might and we announce to all commercial ships and tankers to refrain from any action to transit without the coordination of the armed forces stationed in the Strait of Hormuz so that their security is not jeopardised,” the military said.
“We warn that any foreign armed force, especially the aggressive US army, will be attacked if they attempt to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz.”
Analysts do not expect the destroyers to be escorting merchant ship convoys through the strait.
The mission, beginning Monday, “will support merchant vessels seeking to freely transit through the essential international trade corridor,” CENTCOM said in a statement Sunday evening.
“Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander.
US military support for the effort will include guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, and 15,000 service members, the statement said.
A US official told CNN that “Project Freedom” is not an escort mission.
The US Navy currently has 19 ships in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, and seven ships in the Indian Ocean, a US official said Thursday.
U.S. forces boarded another „stateless“ vessel linked to Iran, the U.S. military said Thursday. The tanker was interdicted in the Indian Ocean — far from the hotly contested Strait of Hormuz — in the latest seizure that is part of a tit-for-tat series of commercial vessel interdictions by U.S. and Iranian forces.
(Updated 3 hours ago)
The U.S. military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters and is redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday.
The ship‘s name carries deep historical resonance. It honours the Battle of Derna (1805) during the First Barbary War (Tripolitan War).
In one of the young United States‘ first overseas land battles, a small force of US Marines, soldiers, and international mercenaries led by William Eaton marched across the desert and captured the Libyan port city of Derna from forces of the Pasha of Tripoli.
The victory helped force a peace treaty, ending tribute demands on American shipping and securing safer Mediterranean trade routes.
Amid rising speculation over a possible US ground operation against Iran, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, carrying nearly 1,800 Marines, has been deployed to the Indian Ocean, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a social media post.
As is often the case in large-scale military operations, logistics are crucial to success. Preparing, staging, and deploying a large, mechanized ground force is a massive and difficult undertaking, and in this case, the favorable points of entry are most likely Turkish territory or the ocean. It seems unlikely the United States could stage an invasion force in Iraq.
To say the prospective operation is “high-risk” might be an understatement. Any concentration of U.S. forces would immediately offer a target for Iran’s remaining precision-guided ballistic missiles.
The arrival of the Lincoln CSG to the region follows a U.S. Air Force Central (AFCENT) announcement on Sunday that it will be conducting Agile Spartan, “a multi-day readiness exercise to demonstrate the ability to deploy, disperse, and sustain combat airpower across the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.” AFCENT told us that Agile Spartan is “part of its regular exercise schedule and not in response to current tensions.” However, the optics of the timing are hard to avoid.
As of January 26, 2026, the Lincoln is expected to be somewhere between the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Oman, but its exact distance from the Iranian coast remains a mystery.
Rear Admiral Shahram Irani emphasized that the operational decisions of the Iranian Navy are guided by the precise vision of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
He announced the establishment of strategic commands in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, with plans for a permanent deployment in these crucial regions in the near future.
– In 2017 the UN General Assembly voted by a large majority(94-15) to refer the request for an advisory opinion on Diego Garcia to the International Court if Justice.
– In September 2018, 13 of the 14 judges of the ICJ concluded that the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia were illegally separated from Mauritius.
– In May 2019 the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly(116-6) to endorse the Court’s opinion that the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia, belonged to Mauritius. Apart from the US and the UK only four countries AUSTRALIA, Hungary, Israel and the Maldives voted in favour of the British neo-colonial claim.
– In November 2019, Britain refused to abide by the ICJ opinion and for the US to leave Chagos/Diego Garcia.
– In 2020 the UN published a map showing Chagos/Diego Garcia as part of Mauritius.
Despite all this, the US sits tight on its key military base of Diego Garcia which is thousands of kilometres from its mainland. In contrast, China’s building of islands in the South China Sea is adjacent to its own territory.
Die Förderung der Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Verbündeten in der Region ist ein wichtiger Aspekt der Anti-China-Politik der Biden-Administration, und Präsident Biden hat deutlich gemacht, dass er die Quad als entscheidend für diese Strategie ansieht. Im März hielt Biden ein virtuelles Treffen mit den Staats- und Regierungschefs Indiens, Japans und Australiens ab, das den allerersten Quad-Gipfel darstellte.
Pompeo will be joined by Defense Secretary Mark Esper in New Delhi on Monday and Tuesday for annual talks.
Seychelles opposition candidate Wavel Ramkalawan from the Linyon Demokratik Seselwa party (Seychelles Democratic Union) won the presidential election with 54.9 percent of total votes, said electoral commission chairman Danny Lucas on Sunday.
Polling stations will open at 7:00am (0300 GMT) on Mahe, Praslin and La Digue — the three main islands of Seychelles, home to the majority of its 74,600 voters, with the rest living on further-flung territory of the Indian Ocean nation.
According to the sources, on 21 December of last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the UN-recognised, exiled Yemeni government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to lease the entire island to the UAE for a period of about 95 years. Saudi and Emirati forces began to arrive on the island in April 2018, the Saudi deployment was reportedly coordinated with the Yemeni government, whilst the UAE arrived without prior coordination with the Saudi-backed Yemeni authorities.
India, the US and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China‘s rising military maneuvering in the region, which is a large swathe of land and sea stretching all the way from the west coast of the US to the shores of east Africa…
Thus, Prime Minister Modi has articulated a vision of a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific, and India has engaged Russia, Japan, Australia, and other Indo-Pacific countries as potential balancers of China‘s influence while remaining wary of joining any nascent security architectures that could antagonise Beijing, the CRS said.
Im Jahr 2014 banden Washington und New Delhi Tokio erneut in ihre jährlich abgehaltene „Malabar“-Kriegsübung ein; seit 2015 wird die Manöverserie, die bereits in den 1990er Jahren als ein bilaterales indisch-US-amerikanisches Projekt begann, in aller Form als trilaterale Maßnahme unter Einschluss Japans durchgeführt. Im November 2017 traf auch der Quad erstmals wieder zusammen.
The UAE has opened its new naval base in Fujairah, allowing it to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and enjoy direct access to the Arabian Sea.
December 29, 2019
„Iran has long stated its readiness to work w/our neighbors to secure the Persian Gulf. #HOPE-Hormuz Peace Endeavour-is on the table right now.“
The Russian special presidential envoy for the Middle East and Africa also expressed unease and confusion over the US’s establishment of a maritime security coalition to patrol the Middle East region’s waterways.
“It is absolutely unclear to me what our American colleagues suggest,” Mikhail Bogdanov said in July.
Saying that the drill is of great importance, he added that Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman are among the key zones of the world trade. Many countries have shipping activities in this area; that’s why maintaining security in the area is vital.
Zur Verteidigung ihrer Kolonialherrschaft veröffentlichte die britische Regierung eine Erklärung: „Das Vereinigte Königreich hat keinen Zweifel an unserer Souveränität über das Britische Territorium im Indischen Ozean, das seit 1814 unter ständiger britischer Souveränität steht“.
The UK failed to meet a UN deadline Friday to hand over their last African colony back to its people. The Chagos Islands are far removed from mainland Africa and lay in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Relations between the two neighbouring countries have been rocky for months in the wake of the maritime dispute, involving tit-for-tat diplomatic moves and retaliation.
In May, Somali diplomats were banned from attending an international conference in Nairobi. In return, all NGOs operating in Somalia but based in Nairobi were ordered by Mogadishu to either relocate to Somalia or cease all operations completely.