The US sent a warning to Iran, months after relations between the two states appeared to be spiralling towards all-out war. Mr Trump said on Twitter this lunchtime: “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.”
Tensions have been threatening to boils over all week after US military chiefs accused Iran of “provocative” actions.
Iran’s defence minister dismissed US reports of harassment by Iranian vessels as “baseless” and said the “illegal and aggressive” US presence in the Gulf was causing insecurity in the region.
Defence Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said: “What leads to insecurity in the Persian Gulf region is actually the illegal and aggressive presence of the Americans who have come from the other end of the world to our borders and make such baseless claims.”
The US military last week reported that 11 vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came dangerously close to US Navy and Coast Guard ships in the Gulf, calling the moves “dangerous and provocative”.
Such clashes were a common occurrence a few years ago but had largely stopped.
At one point, the Iranian vessels came within 10 yards of the US Coast Guard cutter Maui.
The US ships issued several warnings through bridge-to-bridge radio, blasts from the ships’ horns and long-range acoustic noise maker devices. The Iranian ships left after about an hour.
A US military statement said: “The IRGCN’s dangerous and provocative actions increased the risk of miscalculation and collision, and were not in accordance with the internationally recognised Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “We’ve talked as a team. We’re evaluating how best to respond and how best to communicate our displeasure with what took place.”
Iran hit back at the claims of provocation with a warning it woud give give “a decisive response to any mistake by the US in the Gulf”.
A statement from the IRGN said: “We advise the Americans to follow international regulations and maritime protocols in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and to refrain from any adventurism and false and fake stories.
“They should be assured that the Revolutionary Guards navy and the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran sees the dangerous actions of foreigners in the region as a threat to national security and its red line and any error in calculation on their part will receive a decisive response.”
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