- (AP) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday that a confrontation
between Iranian boats and U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf over the
weekend was "something normal" and was resolved. It suggested
the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels.
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- The Pentagon said that in the incident early Sunday,
five small Iranian boats repeatedly "charged" U.S. warships in
the Gulf's Hormuz Strait and dropped boxes in the water. The boats warned
the U.S. ships that they would set up "explosions," a U.S. Defense
Department official said.
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- The U.S. craft were on the verge of opening fire when
the Iranian boats fled, the official said, calling the incidident "the
most serious provocation of its sort" in the Gulf. The official spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the
record.
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- But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini
played down the incident, suggesting it was an issue of mistaken identity.
He did not comment on the U.S. claims of the Iranian boats' actions.
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- "That is something normal that takes place every
now and then for each party, and it (the problem) is settled after identification
of the two parties," he told the state news agency IRNA.
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- The incident was "similar to past ones" that
were resolved "once the two sides recognized each other."
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- U.S. Navy and Iranian officials have said in the past
that vessels from the two rival nations frequently come into contact in
the waters of the narrow, heavily trafficked Gulf. They often communicate
by radio to avoid incidents.
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- But the latest incident was the first time U.S. officials
have spoken of such a direct threat from Iranian boats.
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- The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. local time Sunday
as Navy cruiser USS Port Royal, destroyer USS Hopper and frigate USS Ingraham
were on their way into the Persian Gulf and passing through the strait
- a major oil shipping route.
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- Five small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping
boxes in the water in front of the ships and forcing the U.S. ships to
take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.
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- There were no injuries but the official said there could
have been, because the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the
very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire" in self
defense.
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- The official said he didn't have the precise transcript
of communications that passed between the two forces, but said the Iranians
radioed something like "we're coming at you and you'll explode in
a couple minutes."
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