CAIRO — Iran broadcast video Thursday of its boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf in an apparent attempt to show that there was no confrontation between the vessels.
The grainy 5-minute, 20-second video showed a man speaking into a hand-held radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. It appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the U.S. warships.
The footage did not show any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. vessels or any provocation. But the short clip probably did not show Sunday’s entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials described as threatening and lasting about 20 minutes.
The United States lodged a formal diplomatic protest with the Iranian Foreign Ministry through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters. He also dismissed the Iranian video, insisting that the U.S. military’s version of events was correct.
