Iranian ships harassed US naval vessels in three recent incidents, including one that prompted an American ship to fire warning shots, a US official said Thursday.
The incidents all occurred in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, a day after another encounter in which a group of Iranian naval vessels with their weapons uncovered sped close to two US Navy guided-missile destroyers.
The most dramatic moment in Wednesday’s three events occurred when an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps boat maneuvered around two US patrol ships, the USS Squall and USS Tempest.
Despite multiple warnings via radio and loudspeaker, the Iranian boat approached head on, coming within 200 yards (meters) of one of the vessels, said US Navy Fifth Fleet spokesman Commander Bill Urban.
“This situation presented a drastically increased risk of collision, and the Iranian vessel refused to safely maneuver in accordance with internationally recognized maritime rules of the road,” he said.
“Ultimately, Squall resorted to firing three warning shots from their 50-caliber gun, which caused the Iranian vessel to turn away.”
In an incident earlier in the day, three Iranian vessels crossed the bow of the Tempest within 600 yards on three separate occasions — creating a possible collision hazard, Urban said.
The third incident involved the guided missile destroyer USS Stout. Urban said one of the Iranian boats from an earlier encounter conducted an “unsafe intercept” by crossing the Stout’s bow at close range.
All three encounters Wednesday occurred in international waters in the northern Persian Gulf, Urban said.
The incidents came a day after four Iranian warships sped close to two US Navy guided-missile destroyers with their weapons uncovered in the Strait of Hormuz in an “dangerous, harassing situation” that could have led to an escalation, according to defense officials.
Video of the incident involving the USS Nitze shows American sailors firing flares and sounding the warship’s horn as the Iranian boats approached. A sailor can be heard saying that the weapons on the Iranian boats were “uncovered, manned.”
The Nitze was accompanied on its mission by the USS Mason, another destroyer.
When asked about the Tuesday incident, Iran’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said his country’s “naval units have the duty of safeguarding the country’s security in the sea and the Persian Gulf.”
Iran’s defense minister said Thursday that his naval forces will warn or confront any foreign ship entering the country’s territorial waters.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Gen. Hosein Dehghan as saying that “if any foreign vessel enters our waters, we warn them, and if it’s an invasion, we confront.” He added that Iranian boats patrol to monitor traffic and foreign vessels in its territorial waters.
A defense official told AFP that ships from the US and Iranian navies had interacted more than 300 times in 2015 and more than 250 times the first half of this year.
Ten percent of those encounters were deemed unsafe and unprofessional, the official said.
Facing accusations that it acted aggressively toward a US warship in the Persian Gulf this week, Iran has defended its actions. This comes amid reports of a series of close encounters between US and Iranian vessels that took place in the region this week.
On Tuesday, four Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels intercepted the guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze near the Strait of Hormuz. US officials described the interception as "unsafe and unprofessional."
On Thursday, Iranian defense minister Gen. Hosein Dehghan defended Tehran’s actions, adding that the Revolutionary Guard would perform similar intercepts in the future if necessary.
"If any foreign vessel enters our waters, we warn them, and if it’s an invasion, we confront," he told Tasnim news agency.
Dehghan’s comments came hours before reports surfaced that four similar incidents occurred in the Persian Gulf this week.
According to US officials, one instance involved the USS Squall. Operating in the Northern Persian Gulf, an Iranian ship came within 200 yards of the American vessel. Crewmembers aboard the Squall fired three warning shots into the water.
"These were incidents that the crews deemed unsafe," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters on Thursday.
"These are incidents that carry a risk of escalation and we don’t desire any kind of escalation. Our ships have been operating in that part of the world for years."
Separate encounters involved two US destroyers, the USS Nitze and Stout, and a another patrol ship, the USS Tempest.
During the first reported incident, Iranian vessels came within 300 yards of the Nitze after crewmembers made a series of attempts to make their presence known. Attempts at making radio contact failed, and crewmembers sounded the ship’s whistle, a naval signal meant to express that the ship is unclear about another vessel’s intentions. The Nitze also fired ten flares, without response.
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