It was one of three “unsafe and unprofessional” encounters Tuesday and Wednesday with Iranian ships in the region, Cook said.
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This altercation comes a day after it was reported that Iranian vessels carried out a “high speed intercept” near the Strait of Hormuz.
As the Iranian boats charged towards the destroyer, American sailors on the USS Nitze can be seen in a video released by the Associated Press firing flares and blowing the warship’s horn in defense of the ship. “We will monitor them and, if they violate our waters, we will confront them”, he said according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency.
Tuesday’s encounter took place as the Nitze and the guided-missile destroyer USS Mason were conducting what the official said was a routine transit near the internationally recognized strait.
At one point, the Iranian vessel came within 200 yards (183 meters) of a USA ship, the official said. Cmdr. William Urban, a spokesman for the Navy’s 5 Fleet, called the actions “unsafe and unprofessional”.
During the encounter Tempest fired three warning flares in the direction of the vessel, Urban said, while also attempting radio communications and sounding loud audible warnings via loudspeaker.
“We assessed the interaction as unsafe and unprofessional due to the Iranian vessels not abiding by worldwide law and internationally recognized maritime rules of the road as well as their high rate of closure of Nitze and disregard of multiple warnings by the ship’s whistle and flares”, Raines said of the latest incident.
“I would actually back up a step and say that we are aware the four Iranian vessels approached the USS Nitze as it was transiting global waters in the Strait of Hormuz”, Trudeau said.
Four Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy craft drove within within 300 yards of the American destroyer USS Nitze, near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also denied that the US had any legitimate reason to patrol the Gulf, which contains important global shipping lanes, according to Tasnim.
In the third incident, three Iranian boats crossed in front of the Tempest at high speed, coming within 600 yards of the ship. The two countries are backing opposite sides in the conflict in Syria and remain at arm’s length in Iraq despite shared support for the government in Baghdad.
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan says Iran will confront any vessel intruding in its territorial waters after Pentagon officials claim Iranian speedboats “harassed” United States warships in the Strait of Hormuz.
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The Gulf separates Iran from its regional rival Saudi Arabia and a US naval base in Bahrain.
