Iran reportedly approached two U.S. Navy ships last month in the Persian Gulf, one of which was carrying U.S. Central Command Chief Army Gen. Joesph Votel. Officials said an Iranian boat was speeding towards it head-on and came within 200 yards only to turn around when a second United States vessel nearby fired three warning shots.
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The U.S. patrol ships were operating in worldwide waters at the time.
Earlier, U.S. Adm. John Richardson said the incident involving the Nitze reflects the greater competition the U.S.is facing at sea and underscores the naval tensions with Tehran, which include other similar incidents.
Dehghan claimed that the USA ships were in Iranian waters and his naval forces have been ordered to warn or confront any foreign ship that entered the country’s territory.
Iran says its naval forces will warn or confront any ship entering its territorial waters.
“These were incidents that the crews deemed unsafe”, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters on Thursday.
William Urban, a spokesman for 5th Fleet, said vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducted a “high-speed intercept” and passed close to the USS Nitze, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, in global waters around the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
But Iran’s Defence Minister, General Hosein Dehghan, said the U.S. ships were in Iranian waters.
He said the incident raised concerns about what Washington was willing to let slide when it came to Iran’s behavior.
Later that day, the destroyer Stout, part of the deployed Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, was operating in the same area when the same Naser-class WAP vessel approached, proceeding across the bow three times at close range. The Nitze also tried to communicate with the Iranians over the radio, and also changed course to avoid the vessels.
Three more U.S. ships were harassed by Iranian patrol boats over three incidents on Wednesday, U.S. 5 Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Crews of USA boats were detained in January after their vessels veered into Iranian waters.
The Navy has called the incidents harassing, unsafe and unprofessional because they fail to confirm with worldwide law and maritime standards.
Some 40% of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Gulf.
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That same Iranian ship later approached the USS Stout, a guided-missile destroyer, later Wednesday.
