The incident started with three Iranian vessels, but there was only one around by the time the warning shots were fired, the official said.
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When it failed to leave the area after the Navy had fired flares and had a radio conversation with the Iranian crew, the U.S. officials said, the USS Squall fired three warning shots.
“The Iranian high rate of closure on a United States ship operating in accordance with worldwide law while transiting in global waters along with the disregard of multiple warning attempts created a unsafe, harassing situation that could have led to further escalation including additional defensive measures by Nitze”, the official said.
An Iranian defense official said Tehran’s military intends to “warn” and “confront” any foreign ships entering its territorial waters, after four Iranian fast-attack craft buzzed the guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
A series of naval stand-offs between Iranian speedboats and USA warships in the Strait of Hormuz also occurred in December 2007 and January 2008.
They come against the backdrop of renewed United States diplomatic contacts with Iran.
“These sorts of unsafe and unprofessional actions can lead to escalation and miscalculation, which may necessitate additional defensive maneuvers”, said Cmdr.
Four small Iranian boats drove within 300 yards of destroyer Nitze while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
“Naturally these boats constantly monitor the developments and foreign vessels’ movements and naturally this happens in the waters of our own country”, he said. Finally, Squall fired three warning shots from a.50 caliber gun, after which the Iranians changed course.
Of the rocket exercise, Urban noted that, “the unsafe exercise near US ships operating in accordance with worldwide law while transiting in global waters created a risky situation”.
When asked about the matter, Iran’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said that his country’s “naval units have the duty of safeguarding the country’s security in the sea and the Persian Gulf”.
U.S. Navy video of the Nitze incident showed an American sailor firing flares and sounding the warship’s horn as the Iranian boats approached.
The incident was one of many interactions between Iranian and American ships in and around the Persian Gulf in recent months.
“The Iranian high rate of closure … created a risky, harassing situation that could have led to further escalation including additional defensive measures by Nitze”, U.S. military officials told Reuters.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told the Associated Press that the incident with Nitze raised questions about what is the new normal in the volatile relationship with Iran.
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In January, 10 soldiers were detained for 15 hours after two US ships blundered into Iranian waters.
