Four boats from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps followed and harassed the USS Nitze in international waters Tuesday.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is under sanction by the U.S. for actively supporting and engaging in terrorist activity against the U.S. and its allies.
The four boats raced towards the destroyer without responding to radio calls, the ship’s whistle, or warning flares launched from the Nitze. The U.S. Navy called the move, “unsafe and unprofessional.” The video shows Iranian boats evading U.S. flares and coming within a dangerously close distance of the Nitze.
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Iranian General Hosein Dehghan responded to the incident on Iranian state media, saying, “if any foreign vessel enters our waters, we warn them, and if it’s an invasion, we confront.”
Iran routinely harasses U.S. ships on the high seas. In 2015, a U.S. Navy report noted that 10 percent of all interactions between the U.S. and Iran on international waters were deemed unprofessional and unsafe. Iran reportedly approached two U.S. Navy ships last month in the Persian Gulf, one of which was carrying U.S. Central Command Chief Army Gen. Joesph Votel.
In another incident in late 2015, Iran fired off rockets near the carrier ship USS Harry Truman, setting off alarm bells on the ship and risking a confrontation.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy was also responsible for the detention of 10 U.S. sailors in January, 2016. The sailors drifted into Iranian waters after a mechanical failure and sparked an international incident. Iran broadcast the sailor’s detentions on television, including video of a Navy Lt. apologizing on camera, in violation of U.S. military regulations.
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