Iran on Tuesday denied its Revolutionary guards boats had
threatened to blow up US navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz over
the weekend, saying what happened between the two sides was just a
"routine" action to identify each other.
"No threatening message was transmitted," the state television
quoted an unidentified Guards official as saying.
Meanwhile, Ali Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Guards naval
forces in the region, was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news
agency as saying that "Iran has the right to take controlling
measures and ask all the vessels to identify themselves when they
enter the Persian Gulf" through the Strait of Hormuz.
"No special engagement happened between the guards boats and
foreign ships, it was just a normal identification," he added.
A Guards official said on Monday that the Iranian boats were
patrolling in the Strait of Hormuz when they saw three U.S. ships
there and "routinely asked the ships to identify themselves."
"They (the U.S. ships) did so and continued their path," said
the official who declined to be identified.
Some Iranians on Tuesday also accused U.S. of diverting their
fault into Iran, saying the U.S. military was "exaggerating the
truth."
"It's their fault to have their ships patrolling so close to
Iran, we are entitled to patrol along our coastline," Hassan
Farshid, a 38-year-old clerk told Xinhua.
The U.S. Pentagon alleged on Monday that five Iranian
revolutionary guard boats "seriously provoked" three U.S. warships
in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.
Pentagon officials told reporters the Iranian boats made
threatening moves and headed toward the U.S. ships early Sunday
morning local time.
The Iranian boats also made threatening radio transmissions,
which included the taunt that "I am coming at you. You will explode
in a couple of minutes," they added.
The U.S. warships manned gun positions and were prepared to
shoot, but the Iranian boats suddenly turned away, the officials
said, adding that the U.S. ships were in international waters at
the time.
However, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali
Hosseini on Monday downplayed the incident, saying "it's something
normal and takes place every now and then for each party," adding
that "it has been resolved."
White House has immediately warned Iran to refrain from taking
"provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the
future," while the State Department said the United States "will
confront Iranian behavior where it seeks to do harm either to us or
our friends or allies in the region."
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)
