Navy Accuses Iranian Military Vessels of Harassment
Eleven Iranian gunboats harassed U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships operating in the north Persian Gulf on Wednesday, the Navy said, calling Iran’s actions “dangerous and provocative.”
At one point, the Iranian vessels, from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, came within 10 yards of the Coast Guard Cutter Maui, the Navy said.
The U.S. ships issued several warnings through bridge-to-bridge radio and horn blasts, the Navy said. After an hour, the Iranian vessels “maneuvered away from the U.S. ships and opened distance between them,” the Navy said in a statement.
Defense officials said they didn’t know why the Iranian boats came so close to the American vessels but said the U.S. military didn’t usually operate in that part of the Gulf. The military had been in the area since the end of March conducting an exercise.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif commented on the confrontation by retweeting a 2018 message in which he said: “U.S. Navy can’t seem to find its way around our waters…maybe it doesn’t know what it’s doing in our backyard, 7,000 miles from home.”
The series of encounters came a day after Iranian naval forces seized a Hong Kong-flagged tanker and redirected the vessel into Iranian waters before releasing it, according to Western and Emirati officials.
Photo: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels sailed close to U.S. military ships in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday. - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/navy-accuses-iranian-military-vessels-of-harassment-11587078660
