Later that month, Iran reportedly flew an unarmed drone over a United States warship, a move that a USA navy official called “abnormal and unprofessional”.
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Unsafe confrontations between Iranian and American warships in the Persian Gulf are up more than 50 percent in 2016 compared with this time a year ago, according to a US defense official – despite the highly touted nuclear accord, as well as a recent $1.7 billion USA payment to Tehran.
In a separate encounter Wednesday, the guided missile destroyer USS Stout, based at Norfolk Naval Station, was approached by the Iranian vessel that the Squall had previously shot at.
In the third incident, three Iranian boats crossed in front of the USS Tempest at high speed, coming within 600 yards of the ship. The Tempest and the Squall are patrol ships.
And in January, the IRGC captured 10 American sailors when their two Riverine Command Boats accidentally strayed into waters near Iran-controlled Farsi Island, in the Persian Gulf. Crews of US boats were detained in January after their vessels veered into Iranian waters. The Iranian boats’ high speeds, close approaches and failure to heed warnings “created a risky, harassing situation that could have led to further escalation”, Urban said.
It is relatively rare for a nation’s vessels to fire warning shots at those of another nation. “No one was injured or hit by the warning shots”, he said. The Iranian vessels acted as the aggressors every time, the Navy says. The destroyer, capable of much higher speeds than the Naser, maneuvered away from the vessel to avoid collision and, Urban added, “employed devices to discourage the IRGCN vessel from continuing their approach towards Stout”.
Urban also revealed that on August 15, seven IRGCN vessels conducted a rocket firing exercise “in close proximity” to the destroyer Nitze and the Tempest in global waters in the central Gulf.
Lt. Forrest Griggs, the operations officer of the USS New Orleans, explained that risks arise from the unpredictable behavior and uncertain intent of the Iranian vessels. And we certainly don’t desire any escalation, any sort of confrontation there.
He described the Iranian behavior as “unsafe, unprofessional, and not routine”. Our ships are operating as they have for years in that part of the world, in global waters, and will continue to do so. “We certainly hope it doesn’t continue because it serves no objective other than to raise tensions in an important part of the world-tensions that we don’t seek to have escalated”, Mr. Cook said.
The incidents are just the latest in a series of recent tense encounters between the two nations.
Together, the incidents have stoked concerns that little has changed with Iran despite the nuclear accord.
Iran’s defense minister is a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who plotted the 1983 the U.S. Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel.
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As the destroyer was exiting the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, the four patrol boats closed within 300 yards of the ship ignoring not only radio communications but several flares and warnings from the Nitze’s whistle.
