Alwaght- Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has frustrated a provocative move by a US warship in the Persian Gulf after it fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel.
“This morning, a US Navy ship in the north of the Persian Gulf sailed toward an IRGC Navy’s patrol ship, which was patrolling in international waters, and fired two shots into the air with the aim of provocation and intimidation,” the IRGC said in a statement on Tuesday.
The IRGC Navy’s ship paid no attention to the “provocative and unprofessional” move by the US Navy and continued with its mission, it added. After a while, the IRGC said, the US Navy ship left the area.
The IRGC issued the statement after some Western media outlets quoted a US official as saying that a US Navy ship had fired warning shots toward an Iranian vessel near the northern Persian Gulf on Tuesday after the Iranian vessel came within 150 yards (137 meters) of it.
On 12 January 2016, two US Navy crafts carrying 10 Marines were seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Navy after reaching three miles into the waters surrounding the Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.
IRGC released the sailors saying in a statement that "after technical and operational examinations done in interaction with the country’s relevant political and national security authorities and the establishment of the inadvertent and unintentional nature of the entry by the American Navy crafts and their apology, a decision was made to free them.”
The statement said the Americans had pledged not to repeat the mistake, adding, “...the arrested American Marines were released into international waters under IRGC Navy vessels’ watch.”
Iran has repeatedly warned that any act of transgression into Iran’s territorial waters would be met with an immediate and befitting response.
