The Iranian ships ignored repeated radio, whistle and flare warnings from the Nitze and only slowed their approach when they were within 300 yards of the US ship, Urban said.
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Four fast craft operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Navy (IRGCN) made high-speed passes at a US Navy warship Tuesday afternoon near the Strait of Hormuz, the US Navy reported Wednesday. Finally, Squall fired three warning shots from a.50 caliber gun, after which the Iranians changed course.
“At this point, it’s not clear what the intentions of the Iranian ships were, but the behavior is not acceptable, given that this USA ship was in global waters”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. It also fired 10 flares in the direction of two of the Iranian vessels.
Dehghan’s comments came after four Iranian small boats sailed near the guided missile destroyer USS Nitze on Wednesday.
“Later, the Tempest and Squall were harassed by a Naser-class WAP Iranian vessel that closed Tempest head-on to within 200 yards”, Urban said.
The incidents are only the latest in a series of all-too-close encounters with Iran in the region since December. “And we’re going to continue to take the steps that we need to do to make sure that our sailors and our ships are as safe as possible as they conduct their operation”.
In January, the Iranian navy briefly captured the crews of two USA patrol boats that had, through a series of blunders, strayed into Iranian territorial waters. Two of the Iranian crafts closed to within 300 yards of the American destroyer.
A similar incident in January resulted in the arrest of 10 USA marines, who were quickly freed after urgent diplomatic negotiations between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his U.S. counterpart John Kerry.
The IRGC, the Islamic Republic’s praetorian guard, is suspicious of us military activity near Iran’s borders.
Four Iranian vessels carried out a “high-speed intercept” of a USA destroyer on Tuesday around the Strait of Hormuz, local media reported on Wednesday. As provocative as the actions of the Iranian vessels were, they did not seem important enough for the “Big Three” network news outlet who didn’t report about the engagement at all, Thursday evening.
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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”.
