A US official claimed on Monday multiple fast-attack vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps came close to a US Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier, forcing it to change direction.
The official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the boats came within 600 meters of the USNS Invincible, a tracking ship, and stopped.
The Invincible and three ships from the British Royal Navy accompanying it had to change course.
The official said attempts were made to communicate over radio, but there was no response and the interaction was “unsafe and unprofessional”.
Iran has repeatedly warned that any act of transgression into its territorial waters would be met with an immediate and befitting response.
Years of mutual animosity eased when Washington lifted sanctions on Tehran last year after a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program. But serious differences remain over Iran’s ballistic missile program and conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
While still a presidential candidate in September, US President Donald Trump contended that any Iranian vessels that harassed the US Navy in the Persian Gulf would be “shot out of the water.”
Similar incidents happen occasionally, but the last serious one was in January when a US Navy destroyer fired three warning shots at four Iranian fast-attack vessels near the strait after they allegedly closed in at high speed and disregarded repeated requests to slow down.
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