Five Iranian boats made aggressive
maneuvers and showed hostile intent towards three U.S. Navy
ships at the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil
shipping route in the Gulf, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The Pentagon said the incident was serious. It described
the Iranian actions as "careless, reckless and potentially
hostile" and said Tehran should provide an explanation.
In Tehran, the Iranian foreign ministry described the
incident as ordinary.
"The example that happened on Saturday was similar to
previous cases and is an ordinary and natural issue," Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Iran's official
IRNA news agency.
"This is an ordinary issue that happens for the two sides
every once in a while and, after the identification of the two
sides, the issue is resolved."
The incident was the latest sign of tension between
Washington and Tehran, at odds over a range of issues from
Iran's nuclear program to U.S. allegations of Iranian support
for terrorism.
President George W. Bush is due to travel to the Middle
East this week on a trip he has said is partly aimed at
countering Iranian influence.
"We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative
actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future,"
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Oil prices briefly rose on the news about the confrontation
as dealers weighed the threat to oil shipments along the key
shipping route. Crude futures jumped 49 cents to $98.40 a
barrel before slipping back.
In March, Iran seized 15 British sailors and marines in the
Gulf and accused them of trespassing in Iranian territory while
they inspected a merchant vessel. London maintained the British
personnel were in Iraqi waters.
The British personnel were held for almost two weeks before
being freed in what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
was a "gift" to the British people.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the three U.S. ships
had been in international waters passing through the Strait of
Hormuz on Sunday when they were approached by five fast boats,
at least some of which were visibly armed.
"This is a serious incident," Whitman said. "Clearly this
is something that deserves an explanation."
"AGGRESSIVE MANEUVERS"
The boats were identified as Iranian and "made some
aggressive maneuvers against our vessels and indicated some
hostile intent," Whitman said.
"This required our vessels to issue warnings and conduct
some evasive maneuvering," Whitman told reporters. "The U.S.
Navy vessels were prepared to take appropriate actions... but
there was no engagement of the vessels."
Other Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said the Iranians made threats by radio and a U.S.
captain was in the process of ordering sailors to open fire
when the Iranian boats moved away.
The incident took place about 4 a.m. GMT on Sunday, or late
Saturday night in Washington, the officials said.
According to the officials, the radio transmission from one
of the Iranian ships said: "I am coming at you. You will
explode in a couple of minutes."
The Iranian boats were believed to belong to Iran's
Revolutionary Guard, the officials said.
In October, the United States designated the Revolutionary
Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and
its elite Qods force a supporter of terrorism.
An "informed source" from the naval force of the
Revolutionary Guards was quoted by Iranian state television as
saying: "There were no out of the ordinary contacts between the
Guards' naval force and American ships."
In his account of the incident, the source said three U.S.
naval ships were asked by Guards' vessels "as usual" to
identify themselves "which they did and they continued their
path."(abc)
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