Iran denies improper conduct in Strait
Boats confront US carrier in Hormuz
ABU DHABI // The Iranian military has denied unprofessional behaviour after a US aircraft carrier was approached by armed Revolutionary Guard boats in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US navy said that up to 20 Iranian vessels approached the USS George HW Bush on Tuesday, in an incident seen by a reporter from The National who was on board.
The carrier’s captain, Will Pennington, said some of the small Iranian vessels were loading their weapons as they approached the ship at high speed. At one point a boat was less than 900 metres away.
Shortly after the encounter, Rear Admiral Kenneth Whitesell, commander of the George HW Bush carrier strike group, described Iran’s behaviour as unprofessional and harassment.
On Saturday, Brig Gen Masoud Jazayeri, spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, said: “News disseminated by the US sources concerning unprofessional behaviour of Iranian vessels is not true. We warn again that the US armed forces should change their behaviour.”
Brig Jazayeri blamed the US for any unrest in the Arabian Gulf.
After the incident, in which the US navy said one of the carrier’s helicopters was also threatened by an Iranian boat, Capt Pennington said the main security threat in the Gulf was the “instability and a lack of predictability we currently see from Iran”.
He said this lack of predictability had been growing over the past three or four months.
Last year, there were 527 interactions between US and Iranian naval forces, 35 of which included Iranian activity deemed to be unsafe or unprofessional by US Naval Forces Central Command’ Navcent.
Navcent said Iran’s behaviour was unsafe or unprofessional on six occasions so far this year, including March 4 when a group of Revolutionary Guard vessels came within 550 metres of a US navy surveillance ship, the USNS Invincible.
It said one of the vessels came to a standstill in front of the Invincible, which was forced to change course to avoid collision. Revolutionary Guard navy commander Adm Mehdi Hashemi claimed the US ship had acted unprofessionally.
It “exited from international route and changed its way to- wards navy vessels present in the region, and got as close as 550 metres to Iranian vessels”, said Adm Hashemi.
Tuesday’s incident involving the George HW Bush took place as the carrier was on its way to the northern Gulf to launch air strikes on ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
Navcent said on Friday that strikes on the group had begun. The carrier also launched strikes on ISIL while in the eastern Mediterranean last month.