Iran’s Embassy Appeals for Incident in Persian Gulf not to be Exaggerated

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s Embassy in Baku said that the incident which took place with the US military ship in Persian Gulf was nothing “extraordinary”, and dismissed Washington’s allegations about the incident.

“Nothing strange took place in the incident between the patrol boat and US ship,” the Embassy stated.

Western media said on Monday that five Iranian speedboats warned three US navy ships to keep away from the Islamic Republic’s territorial waters in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf over the weekend.

Pentagon officials said that no shots were fired during the encounter, which occurred Saturday in international waters adjacent to Iranian borders, but meantime pointed out that the US Captain was on the verge of issuing the required orders for opening fire on Iranian naval vessels patrolling the area.

Iran’s embassy stated that such incidents have taken place previously and should not be exaggerated.

The White House called upon Iran to stop such provocative actions in order to avoid dangerous incidents in the future, but Iran played down the incident, describing the event as an “ordinary occurrence” that ended without any disturbance.

“This is an ordinary occurrence which happens every now and then for both sides,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told FNA Monday night.

When such incidents take place, he said “the issue is resolved after both sides recognize each other.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps confirmed that their naval forces were involved in the incident with US naval ships but said “nothing out of the ordinary” took place.

“Nothing out of the ordinary happened between IRGC’s patrol forces and the US boats in the international waters in the Strait of Hormuz,” an informed source in the IRGC’s naval force told FNA.

The source also said that the incident took place at “7:40 am yesterday” (0410 GMT on Sunday).

“IRGC’s naval vessels were patrolling the Straits of Hormuz and patrolling the incoming and outgoing vessels into the Persian Gulf,” the source added.

“Three American warships were entering regional waters and as usual they were identified and questioned.

“The American boats, just as in the past, introduced themselves and gave the (identification) number of their boats and continued on their way without any unusual occurrence.”