Press TV has interviewed Wahid Azal, independent scholar and political commentator from Berlin, about the intrusion of US warships into Iranian territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Certainly this is logical, isn’t it? If someone enters your territorial waters do you defend yourself?
Azal: That’s exactly what happens all the time in the United States itself. In Florida, the territorial waters between Cuba and the United States are quite sparse and there are always incidents happening that have been reported in the local news but never make the international headlines.
Press TV: So, what exactly is the US game plan? Certainly, the United States knows the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz is a sensitive territory. So, why would it try to provoke, if I may use that word, the Iranians?
Azal: Well, this is a long-standing strategy and modus operandi of the Americans going back for as long as anybody can remember. I mean, going back even 40, 50 years in these either international or Iranian territorial waters, there’s always been either American or British naval brigades violating these waters. A lot of it has to do with the actual passages of the Strait of Hormuz itself, the passages where a lot of tankers go through. A lot of these very small areas are not resolved in international law completely, but there is an assumption under international law it is actually belonging to Iran.
Press TV: Mahmoud Alavi, the intelligence minister of Iran, has said that there’ve been many terrorist groups who have been caught and he says that there is evidence that foreign secret service agencies are supporting them. So, how important are all these Iranian stances? What kind of a message does this send to the world?
Azal: Well, what it is saying is that the United States is itching for a fight. So far Iran has been incredibly restraint on all of it, I have to say, but they are breaching territorial waters like this. The evidence is that they’ve done this with impunity in the past; basically said that they’re trying to go to run into an open fight.
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