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TEHRAN — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged on Sunday it had a tense encounter with US warships in the Arabian Gulf last week, but alleged without offering evidence that American forces sparked the incident.
The incident Wednesday saw the US Navy release video of small Iranian fast boats coming close to American warships as they operated in the northern Arabian Gulf near Kuwait, with US Army Apache helicopters.
In the Guard’s telling, its forces were on a drill and faced “the unprofessional and provocative actions of the United States and their indifference to warnings.” It said the Americans
later withdrew.
The Guard released no video or evidence to support its allegation. It also accused American forces of blocking Iranian warships on April 6 and April 7 as well.
Lt. Pete Pagano, a spokesman for the US Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said the Navy stood by its earlier description of the incident on Wednesday.
“Regarding any other interactions with our ships, US forces continue to remain vigilant and are trained to act in a professional manner,” Pagano said in reference to the Guard’s claims of other recent incidents.
The incident comes amid stillheightened tensions between Iran and the US despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Armed men boarded a Hong Kong-flagged tanker ship on Tuesday off the coast of Iran near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, holding the ship for a short time near the Iranian coast before releasing it. Though Iran has not acknowledged the incident, private security firms say the Guard was behind the seizure.
In a tweet, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif kept up his criticism of President Trump, claiming Iran soon would export ventilators despite facing one of the world’s worst outbreaks. —