Iran: US fabricated Gulf encounter
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - January 9, 2008 The video from Sunday's incident shows small Iranian boats
swarming around U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz. In the
recording, a man speaking in heavily accented English threatened,
"I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes."
"The footage released by the U.S. Navy was compiled using file
pictures and the audio has been fabricated," an official in Iran's
Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying by the state-run
English-language channel Press TV.
State TV did not give the name of the Revolutionary Guard figure
and did not offer any evidence that the footage was fabricated.
The Bush administration continued to denounce the Gulf
confrontation as "provocative."
"This is a provocative act - not a smart thing to do, and they
are going to have to take responsibility for the consequences, if
they do it again," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told
reporters aboard Air Force One as President Bush flew from
Washington to Israel.
Hadley added that his comments should not be seen as a threat.
In the four-minute, 20-second video released Tuesday, the
Iranian boats appeared to ignore repeated warnings from the U.S.
ships, including horn blasts and radio transmissions. The video was
shot from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper.
After spotting the approaching Iranian boats, a Navy crew member
on the Hopper says over the radio: "This is coalition warship. I
am engaged in transit passage in accordance with international law.
Intend no harm."
The audio and video recordings were made separately but were
pulled together by the Navy. Often uneven and shaky, the video
condenses what Navy officials have said was a confrontation of
about 20 minutes.
The Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged the U.S. warships
and threatened to blow up the Navy convoy as it passed near but
outside Iranian waters, according to Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, the
top Navy commander in the Gulf. The Iranian fleet "maneuvered
aggressively" and fled as the American ship commanders were
preparing to open fire, he said. No shots were fired.
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar called Western news
reports that the boats threatened to blow up the U.S. warships
"mischief."
"(Iranian) navy units ... asked them to identify themselves.
They responded accordingly and continued their path," the official
IRNA news agency quoted Najjar as saying.
He said the encounter was normal.
"The identification of vessels passing through the Strait of
Hormuz by Iranian navy units is a natural occurrence," IRNA quoted
Najjar as saying. "Islamic Republic of Iran navy units always put
questions to passing vessels and warships at the Strait of Hormuz
and they need to identify themselves. This is in accordance with
the normal procedures."
Cosgriff has said Iran's "provocative" actions were "deadly
serious" to the U.S. military.
The confrontation was an unusual flare-up of U.S.-Iranian
tensions in the Persian Gulf as Bush prepared for his eight-day
Mideast trip, designed in part to counter Iran's influence in the
region. Bush, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday, is expected to
discuss the U.S. stance toward Iran with Arab allies that are also
worried about Tehran's desire for greater regional power.
Many Arab countries fear the Iranian-American rivalry could
erupt into a military confrontation that would put them in the
crossfire and hurt vital oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards has said that its high-speed boats
never threatened the U.S. vessels during the encounter, insisting
it only asked them to identify themselves, then let them continue
into the Gulf.
Cosgriff, the commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, which patrols the
Gulf and is based in nearby Bahrain, said the American vessels,
which were clearly marked, had been identified by Iranian
authorities earlier in the day.