WASHINGTON — On the eve of President Bush’s Middle East trip, five Iranian patrol boats charged at three U.S. Navy ships entering the Persian Gulf on Sunday in what the Pentagon described as a “serious” provocation.
The high-speed Iranian boats, manned by Revolutionary Guards, dropped “white boxlike objects” in the water that the U.S. ships evaded, according to Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff.
“I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes,” a radio transmission from one of the patrol boats warned.
The U.S. ships were preparing to fire at the Iranian vessels when the Iranians abruptly turned and sped away, U.S. officials said.
The Bush administration Monday cautioned Iran about the potential dangers of such actions.
“We would urge Iran to refrain from any provocative actions that could lead to dangerous incidents in the future,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. “There are a number of military as well as commercial vessels that have legitimate passage through the Strait of Hormuz. We believe that should continue.”
Iran played down the incident as a “regular and natural issue.”
“That’s something normal taking place every now and then for each party, and it (the problem) is settled after identification of the two parties,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini told Iranian news agency IRNA.
Similar incidents in the past were resolved when the two sides identified each other, he said.
But U.S. officials rejected that claim.
“This is not something that our vessels encounter (daily),” McCormack said.
U.S. military officials said Iran would have no question about the identity of U.S. ships.
The confrontation, which lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, comes at a particularly sensitive juncture in the three-decade history of U.S.-Iranian tensions. The Bush administration imposed tough sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards and its foreign-operations branch, the Quds Force, in October and is pressing for similar measures in a U.N. resolution this month.
President Bush also is expected to make Iran a centerpiece of his Middle East tour, particularly during his stops in the Gulf countries that face Iran. The Iranian media have been highly critical of the visit.
“American officials are extremely worried about how things are unfolding in the Middle East, and the only way they found to cover the failure of American plans is to arrange for the American president to go on a boisterous visit to the Middle East so the razzmatazz and propaganda surrounding this visit overshadows their serious failures in the region,” the conservative Jomhuri Eslami editorialized over the weekend.
But U.S. officials said they were uncertain of the motive behind Iran’s action. McCormack called Tehran’s decision-making process “opaque.” The three U.S. ships were sailing in international waters.
2 Navy jets collide; all 3 pilots rescued
WASHINGTON — Two U.S. Navy fighter jets plunged into the Persian Gulf on Monday after a midair collision, but all three pilots were rescued safely, Navy Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff said Monday. He said the pilots have been brought back to the USS Harry Truman, their aircraft carrier, and are in good condition.
According to the Navy, teams from the Truman rescued the three aviators who ejected after their F/A-18 Super Hornets crashed during operations in the northern Gulf. Cosgriff said both aircraft were destroyed. Information from the 5th Fleet said the two jets were providing “close air support from Iraq when they crashed.”
The Associated Press
