Eleven vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came dangerously close to US Navy and Coast Guard ships in the Persian Gulf, the US military said in a statement on Wednesday, calling the moves “dangerous and provocative.”
While such interactions occurred occasionally a few years prior, they had stopped, and this incident comes at a time of increased tensions between the two nations.
The Iranian vessels approached six US military ships while they were conducting integration operations with US Army helicopters in international waters, the statement said.
Photo: AP / US Navy
At one point, the Iranian vessels came within 3m of the US Coast Guard cutter Maui. the statement said, adding that the US warships issued several warnings through bridge-to-bridge radio, blasts from the ships’ horns and long-range acoustic noise-maker devices.
The Iranian ships left after about an hour, the statement added.
Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency issued a Farsi-language story on the US military report, without any reaction from Iranian authorities.
“The IRGCN’s dangerous and provocative actions increased the risk of miscalculation and collision, [and] were not in accordance with the internationally recognized Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea,” the US military’s statement said.
Asked in a Fox News interview whether he had discussed the incident with the Pentagon, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “We’ve talked as a team... We’re evaluating how best to respond and how best to communicate our displeasure with what ... took place.”
Close interactions with Iranian military vessels were not uncommon in 2016 and 2017.
On several occasions, US Navy warships fired warning shots at Iranian vessels when they got too close.
Tensions between Iran and the US increased earlier this year after the US killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in a drone strike in Iraq.
Iran retaliated in early January with a rocket attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad Air Base where US forces were stationed.
No US troops were killed or faced immediate bodily injury, but more than 100 were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that Iran or its proxies planned a sneak attack on US targets in Iraq, and warned that they would pay a “very heavy price.”
Maritime security sources on Wednesday said that a Hong Kong-flagged tanker was briefly detained in Iran after armed Iranian guards in speedboats directed the vessel into its waters while it was sailing through the Gulf of Hormuz.
The sources said the SC Taipei chemical tanker had been sailing in international waters on Tuesday when it was stopped.
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