{"id":12898,"date":"2026-01-16T12:01:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12898"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:01:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:01:34","slug":"us-says-south-africa-is-cozying-up-to-iran-with-naval-drills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12898","title":{"rendered":"US says South Africa is cozying up to Iran with naval drills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"textFreeArticle\">\n<p>The US criticised South Africa for allowing Iran to participate in naval drills off the coast of Cape Town, after conflicting reports about the Islamic Republic\u2019s involvement in the exercises.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s \u201cinclusion in joint exercises \u2013 in any capacity \u2013 undermines maritime security and regional stability,\u201d the US Embassy said in a post on X Thursday night. \u201cSouth Africa can\u2019t lecture the world on justice while cozying up to Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Warships from some members of the Brics group of developing nations, including Iran, Russia and China, arrived in South African waters last week for a naval exercise that continued until Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Read: Chinese, Iranian and Russians in naval drills off SA coast<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The statement is the latest US criticism of South Africa, whose relations with its second-biggest trading partner have been strained since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year. Pretoria\u2019s ties to Iran are among the issues that have elicited anger in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has threatened to attack Iran over a violent crackdown against protesters, and this week said the US will impose a 25% tariff on goods from countries \u201cdoing business\u201d with the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa is \u201cfollowing the developments in Iran with concern,\u201d the presidency said in a statement on Thursday, calling on authorities in Tehran \u201cto ensure that citizens exercise their right to protest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While local news outlet News24 reported that Pretoria had persuaded Iran to withdraw from the war games, pictures on the South African National Defence Force\u2019s Facebook page showed captains of participating vessels docked in the South African naval base in Simon\u2019s Town, with Iranian officials present.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States notes with concern and alarm reports that the Minister of Defense and SANDF defied a government order regarding Iran\u2019s participation in the ongoing naval exercises,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read: SA seeks delay of Russia-China war games during G20<\/p>\n<p>South African Defense Minister Angie Motshekga said President Cyril Ramaphosa had issued clear instructions on how the drills should be conducted \u2014 which dealt with Iran\u2019s participation in particular \u2014 and they had been clearly communicated.<\/p>\n<p>A board of inquiry has been appointed to determine whether those instructions had been miscommunicated or ignored, and it had been instructed to report back within seven days, the defense ministry said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\">\n            !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n            {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n                n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n                if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n                n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n                t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n                'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n            fbq('init', '779812924991616');\n            fbq('track', 'PageView');\n        <\/script>#South #Africa #cozying #Iran #naval #drills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US criticised South Africa&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[279,9130,8203,6466,793,278],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}