U.S. Navy fires warning shots on Iran boats in Gulf: Pentagon

Yes, I can see how Iran patrolling the PERSIAN gulf is aggressive and destabilizing, while the presence of ships from a distant nation, which is illegally occupying two countries, opposing the prodemocracy movement in Yemen and Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and Palestine is being totally passive and stabilizing.

In the same way I can see how Biden taking over the White House was aggressive and destabilizing, and Trump's protesters at the Capitol were totally passive and stabilizing.

Remember that there is one, and only one country that was in violation of the JCPOA before it repudiated its acceptance of the deal, forcing the UK, France, and Germany to become violators of the deal too, which released Iran from all obligations under the deal (it's adherence to the General Safeguards of the NNPT predates Obama, and continues to this day) and that country's closest ally in the region not only is under ICC investigation for war crimes, but Human Rights Watch just asked the ICC to open an investigation on it for a Crime Against Humanity.

U.S. Coast Guard in the Persian Gulf? Did they get lost?

Nope. There have been cutters in the Gulf since the 1st Persian Gulf War. Originally they were brought in because the Navy didn't have small fast patrol craft suitable for coastal waters. Now they are busy boarding and searching suspicious ships and boats looking mostly for smuggled weapons. The Navy cannot engage in law enforcement. The Coast Guard can. They are Dept. of Homeland Security and their personnel are considered to be law enforcement officers. They get trained on rules of evidence and how to conduct a legal search. When suspicious vessels are to be boarded and searched, say for weapons that contravene arms embargos or there is some ship floating around the region showing no flag, has its AIS turned off and maybe has a different probably phony name painted on the stern, the Coast Guard has law enforcement teams that can board the ship or boat and conduct a search. Sometimes these Coast Guard teams will also deploy off Navy ships. They are also less controversial when they make port calls in some nations. They can go places a US Navy ship maybe can't out of political/foreign policy considerations. The white hull and blue uniforms like a Customs agent don't look so intimidating as a combat ship.

Just a quick note on the name of The Gulf. Notice that the article is careful not to take sides as nationalists on both Arab and Iranian sides get into arguments.

@Desert Tortoise

Such a lengthy explanation, yet you totally miss the point of Joeintokyo question.

Sadly, they are playing games of chicken with each other, where individual hotheads can do things their government might not have intended.

He has a role in everything Iran related, and acts to their benefit in all cases, so what about this incident?

Your boy Donald unilaterally shredded the Iran deal. And that benefited Iran's nuclear program.

There's no reason for those boats to come so close to each other in international waters

The captains of those boats should observe maritime safety of their crew

Don't do stupid stunts

Navy (and Army) must have a bunch of almost obsolete missiles and whatnot that need firing to justify the purchase of a bunch of new ones from US arms manufacturers. Time to unleash fire and fury on Iran. I think that some kind of threat would sound better/more convincing coming from Kamala. Not Kerry - he is too much of a Persophile.

What are US navy vessels doing at the Gulf thousands of kilometers away from home, near the waters of a foreign nation? Asking or provoking for unnecessary and undesirable trouble?

Better not, lest one gets slapped on one's own face ultimately..

That’s childish. When soon Afghanistan falls into the hands of IS, Taliban, former binLaden followers and such, because US and all others have left, the pressure on Iran is away, only having to look what comes from Iraq. So, what was that message here? We are giving you free hands for your atomic weapons program, but sometimes a small vessel will come and shoot a little bit around for not losing face completely?

That Iranian vessel looks weired!

elephant200, see the article. Quote: "three fast attack craft and on large Harth 55 catamaran".

(I guess 'on' means 'one'. )

fishing

What are US navy vessels doing at the Gulf thousands of kilometers away from home

Bahrain hosts a naval base that's HQ home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet

What are US navy vessels doing at the Gulf thousands of kilometers away from home, near the waters of a foreign nation? Asking or provoking for unnecessary and undesirable trouble?

The US Navy has had ships stationed in the Persian Gulf since WWII. It is a major international shipping route that Iran periodically threatens to shut down. The channel through the Straits of Hormuz are international waters open to all maritime nation's ships. It is not the property of Iran or Oman, the two nations on either side of the straits.