Vol. 72/No. 3      January 21, 2008

The U.S. Defense Department said five Iranian speedboats were approaching a U.S. destroyer, a missile cruiser, and a frigate and had radioed a threat to blow them up. The captain of the destroyer, the USS Hopper, ordered the ship’s M240 machine gun trained on one of the Iranian boats just before it steered away.

Tehran says its sailors were simply trying to determine the identity of the destroyer. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Muhammad Ali Hosseini downplayed the incident, saying it was a normal occurrence, which “happens between the two sides every once in a while.”

Following the U.S. announcement of the incident, the Navy released a video showing speedboats approaching three ships. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the video was old footage and that the radio threat to explode the U.S. ships was faked.

U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of a “dangerous” and “provocative” act. She told the Jerusalem Post Iran is “the single greatest threat to the kind of Middle East we all want to see.”

Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, responsible for forces in the Arab-Persian Gulf, said the episode was “more serious than we have seen,” particularly because it occurred in a vital maritime choke point. Some 17 million barrels of crude per day, more than 20 percent of the world’s total oil supply, passes through the Strait of Hormuz from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers. Heavy armor and military supplies are also transported to Iraq and other Gulf states through the Strait.

A U.S.-led force of 45 warships, including British ships, maintains a constant patrol in the Gulf. In the last year, in an attempt to intimidate Tehran, they have carried out two major military exercises off Iran’s coast.

Gholam-Ali Haddad, speaker of Iran’s parliament, said, “If one side should charge others of meddling in this region, that side would be Iran, because unlike the Americans, who came from thousands of kilometers away and stationed their navy ships in the Persian Gulf, we are a natural neighbor of this waterway.”

The Pentagon claimed the U.S. ships were in international waters, but the demarcation of the border on the strait remains in dispute. Last March Iranian ships captured 15 British sailors in the Arab-Persian Gulf who Tehran said were in Iranian waters.  
 
 
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