In January, 10 USA sailors, who were aboard two patrol craft, were detained by the IRGC when they inadvertently entered Iranian territorial waters.
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The U.S. fired flares and attempted radio communication with the Iranian boats but both were unsuccessful, so the Squall fired a few shots into the water as a deterrent.
The USS Squall fired warning flares but the craft continued to approach – so the patrol ship fired live rounds.
The Iranians allegedly came as close as 300 yards (274 meters) of the Nitze during the encounter.
In January, the Iranian navy briefly captured the crews of two United States patrol boats that had, through a series of blunders, strayed into Iranian territorial waters. “We will monitor them and, if they violate our waters, we will confront them”, he said in a stark statement reported by the Iranian Students’ News Agency.
The Iranian vessels moved at high speed toward the Nitze, which was operating in accordance with global law in worldwide waters and ignored maritime “rules of the road” as set out in the 1972 Convention on the global Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. Urban, who characterized the interaction as a risky, harassing situation that could have led to further escalation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
However, it is still unknown whether the antagonizing encounter was sanctioned by officials in Tehran, or simply the work of four IRGC commanders. 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.
Back in January, the IRGC Navy captured 10 US Navy sailors inside Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, but released them shortly afterwards following an apology and after technical and operational investigations indicated that the intrusion into Iranian territorial waters was “unintentional”. Again, the destroyer got no response, the official said.
A Navy investigation later found that faulty navigation equipment did not indicate the vessels’ position in Iranian waters.
The intercept was another tense incident between the longtime foes over the past year.
Should American military vessels be in the Strait in the first place? No.
It was one of three “unsafe and unprofessional” encounters Tuesday and Wednesday with Iranian ships in the region, Cook said.
“The onus here is on the Iranians to conduct themselves in a safe and professional manner like navies all over the world do”, Mr. Cook said at a Pentagon press briefing Thursday.
On Tuesday, two US patrol coastal ships – USS Tempest and USS Squall – were operating in worldwide waters in the northern part of the Gulf when IRGC naval boats approached them at a high speed and passed within 600 yards of Tempest three different times.
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The White House said Friday that the Iranian navy’s behavior was “not acceptable” in causing two close encounters with USA war ships in the Persian Gulf.
