Trump: harassment of US ships by Iran in Persian Gulf ends

US President Donald Trump noted that harassment of United States warships by the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf has stopped in the second year of his administration.

He tweeted US Navy statistics on the dangerous encounters — which included 22 events in 2015, 36 in 2016, 14 in 2017 and zero in 2018.

The last event happened in August 2017 when an Iranian drone flew close to a F/A-18 Super Hornet that was attempting to land on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, forcing the jetfighter to take evasive action, the Navy said. ​

But that respite might be short-lived as Iran has threatened to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, in an effort to disrupt international crude oil supplies, the New York Post reported.

The threat came after the Trump administration last week warned countries to end imports of Iranian oil by Nov. 4 as part of its tougher campaign against the Islamic Republic after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal.