[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [Iran01] U.S.-Iranian Naval Confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz

[Barbara kessel]

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From: Michael Lynn <mlynn226 at gmail.com>
Date: Jan 7, 2008 4:22 PM
Subject: [Iran01] U.S.-Iranian Naval Confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz
To: noattackiran at yahoogroups.com, ICPJ Iran Working Group <iran01 at ilcpj.org>


>From the NY Times website:


January 8, 2008

U.S. Describes Confrontation With Iranian Boats
By THOM SHANKER and BRIAN KNOWLTON


WASHINGTON — In a brief confrontation in the strategically important
Strait of Hormuz, five armed Iranian fast boats took aggressive
actions on Sunday around three United States Navy warships in
international waters, according to a Pentagon spokesman, who called
the moves "reckless and dangerous."

The confrontation, which ended uneventfully after about 20 minutes,
took place as the three American vessels were sailing into the Persian
Gulf, according to Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. The American
vessels were a destroyer, a frigate and a cruiser.

The Iranian government played down the episode, saying that it ended
immediately when the vessels recognized one another. But Mr. Whitman
and other officials described a tense confrontation in the strait, a
narrow but vital passage through which millions of barrels of oil move
each day. Oil prices on world markets spiked briefly on the news,
which was first reported by CNN.

In Iran, the Fars news agency posted an account quoting an unnamed
source at the Revolutionary Guards saying that the Iranian boats
noticed the Navy vessels getting close to Iranian territory, and that
the American vessels identified themselves. "Nothing out of ordinary
happened, and the vessels left," he was quoted as saying.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, also told the
official Irna news agency that the encounter was "quite normal,"
something that frequently happened.

The confrontation came at a time of considerable tensions between the
two countries, and a day before President Bush was to visit the region
for a weeklong tour aimed both at encouraging Middle East talks and
conveying a message that Iran continues to pose a serious threat.

The White House warned Tehran against any repetition of the confrontation.

"We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that
could lead to a dangerous incident in the future," said Gordon
Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

One Defense Department official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to describe early reports from the Navy's regional
headquarters in Bahrain, said that the Iranian boats made a radio
threat that the American ships would explode.

"The five Iranian fast boats essentially came in and charged the
ships," the Defense Department official said. The verbal warnings
heard in English over the internationally recognized bridge-to-bridge
radio channel said, "I am coming at you, and you will explode in a few
minutes," the official said.

A few minutes later, one of the Iranian boats placed two white boxes,
possibly meant to be taken for mines, in the wake of one of the Navy
ships, which caused another of the American vessels to take evasive
action.

"Whether they're just testing us to learn about our procedures, or
actually trying to initiate an incident, we don't know," the official
said.

The five fast boats were identified by Defense Department officials as
belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Traditionally,
the Revolutionary Guards' maritime forces have operated in a far more
hostile manner than the regular Iranian Navy.

"We have found in the past that the regular Iranian Navy was a
courteous and professional organization, and our relations are as we
would have with any other navy in the world," said one Pentagon
official who has studied the issue. "The I.R.G.C. Navy has a tendency
to act in these unprofessional ways, and to be very provocative at
times."

Last March, Revolutionary Guards sailors captured 15 British sailors
in waters the British insisted were international, and held them for
nearly two weeks.

The Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards,
wrote in an analysis that the accusations were baseless and aimed at
depicting Iran as a threat ahead of President Bush's trip to the
region. It said that the news received considerable attention in the
Arab media.

"This was a media show by Bush to pretend his trip is important to the
Middle East and to make the Arab countries feel that they need the
U.S. forces in the region for security," it wrote.

In actions last year that brought immediate expressions of concern
from senior Navy and Defense Department officials, the Iranians began
operating in ways that led American officials to believe that Iran had
turned command of its naval missions in the Persian Gulf over to the
Revolutionary Guards, and had stripped the regular Iranian Navy of
that responsibility.

As the Iranian fast boats approached Sunday, the American warships
issued warnings and "conducted evasive maneuvering," said Mr. Whitman,
the Pentagon spokesman. The American warships, he said, were "prepared
to take appropriate action."

The United States has conducted significant war games to prepare for
the kind of encounter that occurred over the weekend, as Navy officers
have expressed concerns that the smaller Iranian fleet would choose to
confront American warships in an asymmetrical manner by swarming with
larger numbers of smaller craft.

In an interview in Bahrain last month, Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff,
commander of American naval forces in the region, said that while Iran
was unlikely to try to close the strait, it might take actions to
intimidate American allies in the Persian Gulf and to illustrate its
ability to damage global prosperity.

"I wake up thinking about Iran, I go to bed thinking about Iran,"
Admiral Cosgriff told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates during a visit to Bahrain.


Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran.
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