The USS Tempest fired flares as a warning made radio contact, but the Iranian vessel continued its approach.
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The USS Squall and the USS Tempest, two American coastal patrol ships, were transiting the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, when the USA said an Iranian vessel harassed the ships.
The Iranian vessel passed between the two American ships at one point, coming within a couple hundred yards of the two ships.
In one incident, a number of Iranian attack boats made high speed runs toward the two PCs operating in global waters, forcing the U.S. sailors to take “appropriate steps to deescalate the incident”, he said.
There have been two more incidents in which Iranian fast attack craft rapidly approached US warships in the Persian Gulf in an “unprofessional manner”, requiring one American vessel to fire two warning shots, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said August 25.
The White House has expressed concern after several close encounters between Iranian vessels and USA warships in the Persian Gulf this week. The IRGCN also arrested 10 riverine sailors at gunpoint after they strayed into Iranian waters and held them for day, an incident which Iranian officials proclaimed as a victory.
They come against the backdrop of renewed United States diplomatic contacts with Iran.
In the wake of Tuesday’s incident, the Nitze and US Naval Forces Central Command have determined that the Iranian vessels were violating worldwide law and maritime standards and were acting dangerously and unprofessionally.
The USS Mason, also a guided missile destroyer, accompanied the Nitze. Richardson didn’t clarify why the USA ships were sailing in the Strait of Hormuz. First, three Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy vessels proceeded across Tempest’s bow within 600 yards on three occasions, risking a collision.
Navy spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban called Iran’s conduct “unsafe and unprofessional”, and warned such behavior could “lead to escalation and miscalculation”. Both encounters are reminiscent of an instance in January in which two US Navy patrol vessels drifted into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf. The sailors were released soon after.
Such control and naval patrols “naturally take place in Iran’s own territorial waters”, he stressed.
Long-standing US tensions with Iran over Tehran’s support for militant groups across the Middle East have not dissipated in the wake of a 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
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Disturbing news broke Thursday that for the third time in a week US Navy ships in or near the Persian Gulf were harassed by vessels maned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
