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Iranians have launched an online petition to urge the US President Barack Obama to respect the Iranian identity of the Persian Gulf. The petition is a public reaction to an Obama speech on March 27 in which he referred to the Persian Gulf as 'Gulf'. The petition says that the Persian Gulf is an ancient historical reality that cannot be manipulated. Iran designated today, Thursday, April 30, as the National Persian Gulf Day to highlight the fact that the historic waterway, is part of the natural heritage of Iran. Some Arab countries have launched a campaign to change the Persian...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1155.html Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs This information is current as of today, Fri Feb 13 2009 01:02:05 GMT-0800 (PST). Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf February 11, 2009 This Travel Alert is being updated to warn Americans about heightened security concerns in and around the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf. U.S. citizens traveling to or already in the region are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. This replaces the Travel Alert for the Arabian Peninsula and...

ROYAL Australian Navy petty officer Benjamin Sime showed no hesitation when he jumped from his helicopter into the sea to assist a group of US sailors wounded by suicide bombers targeting Iraqi oil installations in the Persian Gulf in April 2004. Petty Officer Sime, a sensor operator, remained in the water assisting four survivors until a rescue boat arrived - actions acknowledged yesterday with the award of a Medal for Gallantry. The rescue occurred in the Gulf's northern waters and followed the attempted boarding of a suspect dhow by seven sailors from the USS Firebolt. As the boarding party approached...

"Sir, you have done India proud." That was how the anchorman of a television channel in Delhi addressed the Indian navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, on the victorious sea battle by warship INS Tabar with would-be hijackers as dusk was falling on Tuesday evening in the Gulf of Aden. Those words would have made Sir Francis Drake, the 16th-century British navigator and slaver-politician of the Elizabethan era, truly envious. Sir Francis had bigger claims to fame in a life cut short by dysentery while attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1595. Unsurprisingly, the patriotic Indian media dutifully expressed its gratitude...

A vessel belonging to the US Navy has reportedly caught fire in the northern Persian Gulf near the Iraqi port cities of Al-Bakr and al-Amaya. Informed military sources said on Monday that the UN Navy had secretly moved the vessel to the coasts of Kuwait after the fire broke out, Iran's Arabic-language TV channel Al-Alam reported. The sources did not rule out the possibility that a blast had started the fire on the vessel that was said to be "one of the four US warships in the region," the report added. The US military has not yet commented on the...

LONDON -- Iran's fleet has the capacity to inflict crippling damages on any US vessels in the Persian Gulf, a French newspaper reports. In an article in Le Figaro published on Wednesday, George Malbrunot has written that Iran has a tactical defense scheme in the Persian Gulf to implement against any possible US attack. Malbrunot noted that the Islamic Republic has mass-produced a large number of speed boats with rocket launchers and other sophisticated military equipment which are able to strike a heavy blow on any foreign warship if the country comes under attack.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran announced Tuesday that it has put the elite Revolutionary Guards in charge of defending the country's territorial Persian Gulf waters in what appeared to be a hardening of its stance in the vital oil route. U.S. commanders in the Gulf have in the past said they find Guards ships more confrontational than the regular Iranian navy, which until the new order was responsible for Iranian defenses in the Gulf. Iran has warned repeatedly that it will close the narrow Hormuz Strait at the mouth of the Gulf if the United States or Israel attacks it amid...

Kuwait has activated its Emergency War Plan after an armada of US naval battle groups headed for the Persian Gulf, Middle East Times reports. The report comes after DEBKAfiles claimed on Monday that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Iwo Jima are sailing toward the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US strike forces in the region. The US naval force is accompanied by a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine. The deployment is believed to be the largest naval task force assembled by the United States and its allies...

Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area. The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force". The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2)...

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region. The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy." While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they could...

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region. The US Navy will neither confirm nor deny that carriers are currently en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment because of what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy." While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believes are heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they...

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aimed at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions and isolation. The penalty of withholding refined oil products from Iran would be exercised by means of a partial international naval blockade of its Gulf ports. Taking part in the 10-day exercise in the Atlantic Ocean are more than a dozen ships, including the US carrier strike group Theodore Roosevelt and expeditionary strike group Iwo Jima; the French submarine Amethyste,...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran tested more missiles in the Persian Gulf, state media reported Thursday, a day after the country drew Western criticism for test-firing nine rockets.

TEHERAN - Iran reiterated that it would block the oil export route in the Persian Gulf if attacked, a Teheran newspaper reported Saturday. "It is understood that a country would use all possible options against an aggressor if militarily attacked. In that case, Iran would also intensify control of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz," the commander of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards told Jam'e Jam daily. General Mohammad Ali Jafari also warned neighbouring countries not to take part in any military strike plans against Iran. The general made the statement in reference to reports that the United States and...

MEXICO CITY, April 30, 2008 – The movement of a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf this week doesn’t signal an escalation of the U.S. naval presence -- but could serve as a “reminder” of it to countries in the region, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here last night. Gates did not specifically name Iran when responding to a reporter’s question about the arrival this week of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf. “The size of our naval presence in the Gulf rises and falls constantly,” he said. “This deployment has been planned for a long time. I...

A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

A vessel contracted by the Navy in the Persian Gulf fired warning shots Thursday on two Iranian fast boats, FOX News has learned. The Westward Venture, a ship contracted by the Navy to carry military cargo to Kuwait, fired upon the boats Thursday after attempts to get Iranian boats' attention failed. The ship was about 50 miles off the coast of Iran when the fast boats approached. A Navy security team, armed with M16 rifles and .50-caliber machine guns, was onboard at the time the warning shots were fired.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices rose sharply Friday on news reports that a ship under contract to the U.S. Navy fired warning shots at two Iranian boats. The report on Fox News raised concerns that a conflict between U.S. and Iranian forces could cut oil supplies from the Persian Gulf region. Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose $2.85 to $118.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising as high as $119.50. Prices were already up before the report on news of a pipeline attack in Nigeria and a looming refinery strike in Scotland. At...

U.S. and Gulf allies in exercise to block ships carrying WMDs April 21, 2008 ABU DHABI — The United States has held a rare naval exercise with Gulf states which it said was not directed at Iran. The U.S. Navy began the exercise on April 19 meant to test Gulf Cooperation Council capabilities to block the entry of ships that carry weapons of mass destruction. This was the second such exercise in the Gulf in as many years. Officials said Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar participated in the exercise while representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia observed.

Another source: http://cbs2chicago.com/national/iran.naval.confrontation.2.697662.html The Navy says a ship encountered a small Iranian high-speed boat in the central Persian Gulf and warned it away by firing a flare. Two other similar Iranian boats in the area did not come as close. The USS Typhoon tried unsuccessfully to establish radio contact with the Iranian boat after it came within an estimated 200 yards of the Typhoon on Thursday, outside Iranian territorial waters. A Navy official says the ship then fired the flare and continued on its way without incident. The official says there were no signs any boat was armed. It was...