Iranian Anti-Piracy: Here I Go Again on my Own

David Axe continues his piracy coverage with an article about Iran's anti-piracy deployment off Somalia:

There's just one country plying East African waters that refuses to cooperate. In December, Tehran announced it would send warships to protect Iranian shipping from attack. The first Iranian flotilla apparently departed in May, and a second group set sail several months later. But the deployed vessels never integrated into the international coalition, and therefore do not benefit from the international cooperation. The Iranian ships operate alone, in silence and secrecy, leading some to question Tehran's motives.

"It's a mystery," Granger says of Tehran's intentions. He says it's possible the Iranian ships are doing just what Tehran claims -- that is, patrolling African waters to deter and interdict pirates, albeit less efficiently than were they to cooperate with other navies. It's also possible that the Iranian ships are meant as a reminder of Tehran's ability to deploy military power outside its national waters.

Last year at the Patterson School we ran a simulation based on the idea that Iran wasn't playing above board with its anti-piracy mission. Rather, it was using the mission to cover for shipments associated with its nuclear program. That's a bit more far out than the idea that the Iranians are simply monitoring US naval assets, but it worked in terms of producing an interesting exercise.