By Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne and Zachary Cohen
A Russian warship "aggressively approached" a US Navy destroyer while it was operating in the North Arabian Sea Thursday, ignoring warnings from the US vessel and increasing the risk of a collision, the US Navy said Friday.
Video of the incident, which was obtained by CNN, shows the Russian warship rapidly approaching the USS Farragut, coming as close as 180 feet to the US ship before changing course, according to two defense officials.
The incident is the latest example of a close encounter between US and Russian military forces that American officials have described as unsafe or provocative.
I’ve seen the reports of this close encounter on the evening news from ABC, NBC, and CBS, read this CNN article and one other from the Hill. Not one of these ‘News’ outlets gave this important story any context.
First, this aggressive close encounter is an unmistakable message from Russia to Trump, to back off on Iran.
Being a nerd this headline from just two weeks ago came to mind.
The four-day exercise in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman comes at a time of heightened tensions between US and Iran.
Iran has kicked off the first joint naval drill with Russia and China in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, Iranian state TV has reported.
The four-day exercise comes at a time of heightened tensions since the United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in May last year.
"The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting security through cooperation and unity ... and its effect will be to show that Iran cannot be isolated," Rear Admiral Gholamreza Tahani said on state television.
Now I see why Trump didn't retaliate to the Iranian missile strikes from two days ago, launched in response to Trump’s brazen assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.
He would have bitten off a lot more than he could chew.
I’m glad Trump wasn’t foolish enough to follow through on his threats to retaliate against Iran disproportionately. If he had, we could have witnessed an escalating slaughter this week, instead of attending yesterday’s anti-war demonstrations in a relatively peaceful world.
We ducked a bullet.