Iran’s navy commander Shahram Irani announced that Iran, along with Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf states, plans to form a naval alliance. The alliance aims to promote regional security and cooperation, and Iran has been working on improving its strained ties with Gulf Arab states.
The US has an aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East to counter Iran may surprised to many observers.
The US has a strong naval presence in the Gulf and leads the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a multinational coalition that conducts maritime security operations. The Iran-led, naval alliance in Gulf will be counter the US and its alliance to manipulate Gulf waters and other strategic offensives.
The proposed naval alliance would also include some other Asian countries that would give additional weightage to this new navy shield against the United States (US).
The formation of such a naval alliance would have significant importance for the regional balance of power and to counter the US hegemony in the Gulf. It could challenge the US-led CMF and create more friction and polarization in the maritime domain. It could also signal a shift in the alignment of Gulf Arab states, some of which have recently normalized relations with Israel.
However, the new navy alliance will be a serious challenge for the US command and control in the Gulf states who have several military bases in many Arab states. The details of the alliance are still vague, and the reactions of the other countries involved are yet to be known.
