(HOST) Veteran A-B-C News correspondent and commentator Bill Seamans says that the candidates' foreign policy debate has just become more urgent.


(SEAMANS) While the presidential candidates are assessing what's ahead for them after the New Hampshire primary, they can look forward to adding another foreign policy dilemma to their campaign debates with the question "what to do about the Straits of Hormuz?"

Yes, the Straits of Hormuz - that strategic narrow waterway that is the only access to the Persian Gulf, the inland sea between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Earlier this week, five high-speed Iranian gunboats approached and threatened to blow up three of our Navy ships passing through Hormuz to enter the Persian Gulf. The American ships were about to open fire when the Iranian boats swerved away.

The story's importance has received little media follow-up, because the nation's attention is overwhelmed by the historic New Hampshire election. It was an incident that came near to exploding a new crisis in the Middle East. The Iranians played it down calling it an ordinary incident. But the White House called it a provocative action. Our Middle East Navy commander said, "We take this deadly seriously." And Defense Secretary Robert Gates called it a "troubling matter of real concern."

"Troubling" was an understatement, because blocking the Straits of Hormuz would cut off the tankers that bring vital Persian Gulf oil to the United States. Iran has declared that if the U.S. attacks its nuclear plants it would retaliate by blocking the Straits.

Also, as we noted in a commentary last July, our Navy ships in the Gulf would be trapped if the Hormuz Straits were blocked by an Iranian attack, perhaps by sinking ships or a missile strike. Right now, our huge carrier Harry Truman and its battle group are sailing in the Persian Gulf.

A provocative foreign policy question for the presidential candidates as they resume their primary battle could be "should the U.S. fleet remain at risk in the Persian Gulf when planes flying from our carriers outside in safer nearby waters could maintain our strategic pressure in the Gulf?"

It's speculated that Iran deliberately staged the gunboat incident as a message to President Bush as he starts his Middle East trip - perhaps signaling the opinion that his refusal to talk to Iran is not an effective approach to peace in the Middle East.

Another question the presidential wannabes might toss around is "why lame-duck President Bush, whose image reportedly is so bad overseas and whose foreign policy is in such disarray... why is he going to the Middle East, where beyond photo-ops and padding his legacy, he is not expected to achieve a breakthrough."