WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2008
Pentagon: Iranians Harassed Navy Ships
U.S. Captain Nearly Opened Fire; Iran Calls Incident "Something Normal"
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Play CBS Video Video Iran Chided Over Provocation The Pentagon has warned Iran against taking provocative actions against the U.S. after Iranian Revolutionary Guards swarmed U.S. Navy ships on their way to the Persian Gulf. Drew Levinson reports.
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Video Iran Rebuked For Provocation The Pentagon has issued Iran a stern warning after Iranian Revolutionary Guards threatened to fire on U.S. Navy ships patrolling international waters near the Persian Gulf. Bob Orr reports.
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A file photo of the guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal, one of three Navy ships that were harrassed by five Iranian fast boats on Sunday. (U.S. Navy/PM 2nd Class C. Mobley)
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Timeline The U.S. And Iran Key events in once friendly, now contentious relationship between Washington and Tehran.
U.S. forces were taking steps toward firing on the Iranians to defend themselves, said the U.S. naval commander in the region. But the boats - believed to be from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy - turned and moved away, officials said.
"We take this deadly seriously," Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff told a Pentagon news conference via video from Bahrain.
"It's important to remember we have been attacked by small high-speed boats in the region," said Cosgriff, recalling the USS Cole in which 17 U.S. sailors were killed when an explosives-laden boat rammed the destroyer as it refueled in 2000 in Yemen's port of Aden.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday that the confrontation early Sunday was "something normal" and was resolved, suggesting the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels. The Bush administration said that Iranians should "refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."
High-seas hostilities have been building for months, with heavily armed speed boats carrying Iran's Revolutionary Guard darting near U.S. ships patrolling the dangerous waters of the Persian Gulf, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.
This is at least the third time in six months that Iranian boats have harassed U.S. ships in international waters, Orr reports. And just last March, 15 British sailors were captured in the Persian Gulf and held for two weeks by the Revolutionary Guard.
The incident raised new tensions between Washington and Tehran as President Bush prepared for his first major trip to the Middle East.
According to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, White House spokesperson Tony Fratto said the Bush administration urges the Iranians "to abstain from such provocative acts that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."
Cosgriff said the incident occurred at about 8 a.m. local time Sunday.
CBS News has learned from Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman that the three ships - the guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal, the guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper and the guided missile frigate USS Ingraham - were transiting the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf when they were approached by 5 Iranian fast boats, some of which were assessed to be visibly armed.
The five small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping box-like objects in the water in front of one of the ships and forcing the U.S. ships to take evasive maneuvers, said Cosgriff, commander of the 5th Fleet and of naval forces in the U.S. Central Command region.
The Iranian boats came to less than 500 yards from the U.S. formation and at one point broke into two groups, one group going to one side and the other to the others side of the Americans. Officials said there were no injuries.
"At one point during this encounter ... the ships received a radio call that was threatening in nature, to the effect that they were closing (in on) our ships and that the ships would explode - the U.S. ships would explode," Cosgriff said.
While meeting the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other regional nations Jan. 9-16, Bush is expected to try to bolster the troubled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians but is also likely to seek backing for U.S. concerns about Iran.
Iran is under two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms, and Washington is pushing for additional U.N. penalties. But a recent U.S. intelligence assessment that it probably shut down a clandestine weapons program three years ago have led to increased resistance to such a move from permanent Security Council members Russia and China, which have strategic and trade ties with Tehran.
At the State Department Monday, spokesman Sean McCormack said he was not aware of any plans to lodge a formal protest.
"Without specific reference to this incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States will confront Iranian behavior where it seeks to do harm either to us or to our friends and allies in the region," McCormack told reporters. "There is wide support for that within the region and certainly that's not going to change."
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Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Defense Department will work with State and National Security Council officials to determine "the appropriate way to address this with the Iranian government."Iran's Foreign Ministry said the weekend incident between Iranian boats and U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz was "something normal" and was resolved.
But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini played down the incident, suggesting it was an issue of misidentification. He did not comment on the U.S. claims of the Iranian boats' actions.
"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.
The incident was "similar to past ones" that were resolved "once the two sides recognized each other," he said.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guard official also described the incident as nothing unusual.
"No unusual confrontation has taken place between the Guard's patrol vessels and U.S. ships," state-run television quoted the official as saying. The official was speaking on customary condition of anonymity. The Guard official said the Guard's vessels were conducting normal patrols in the Strait of Hormuz when they saw three U.S. ships enter the waters of the region.
"The Guard's navy vessels, as usual, asked the ships to identify themselves and they did so and continued their path," the TV quoted the official as saying.
Whitman said the U.S. vessels were in international waters, making a normal transit into the Gulf. He said the Iranian boats were operating at "distances and speeds that showed reckless and dangerous intent - reckless, dangerous and potentially hostile intent."
Historical tensions between the two nations have increased in recent years over Washington's charge that Tehran has been developing nuclear weapons and supplying and training Iraqi insurgents using roadside bombs - the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.
At about this time last year, Bush announced he was sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf region in a show of force against Iran. The U.S. Navy quietly scaled back to one carrier group several months later. But while the two were there, they staged two major exercises off Iran's coast.
As one of the world's most vital chokepoints for oil shipping, the 30-mile-wide Hormuz strait has been the subject of previous armed confrontations between the United States and Iran, most notably during the eight-year Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 804 CommentsIn the Daily telegraph, July 22, 2006 Condoleeza Rice stated her main objective in the middle east was not to push a ceasefire in Lebanon, but to cause an isolation of Syria and Iran. The strategic objective is all tied to oil and oil pipelines. In April of 2006 Israel & Turkey made their announcement which included four pipelines which will bypass Syria & Lebanon. The source of the oil is the BTC pipeline from the Caspian Sea Region. Shareholders in the BTC pipeline are: British Petroleum, AzBTC, Chevron, Statoil, TPAO, ENI, Total, Itochu, INPEX, Conoco-Phillips & Amerada Hess. Another very important factor on the war with Lebanon is that Israel will have a strategic role in protecting the pipeline and transportation corridor out of Ceyhan Turkey. The strategy will weaken Russian oil''s role in central asia and also isolate Iran.
Wouldnt the Coast Guard be offshore looking at things?
this is a very non issue.
Quetzal666
If Venezuela and Cuba had a Navy to hold war games near US waters, the US could only watch.
This however is much different. The US ships were in international waters. The Iranians radioed their intention to destroy the ships, the Iranians were dropping boxes (possible mines or torpedos) in front of the US ships forcing them to take evasive action.
This is a HUGE issue. How can you hold the this opinion after reading the article? Oh, you didn''t.
doent it make sence they are a bit ****.ed off?
what if Venezuelas Navy was off the coast in International waters off of Texas? holding War Games with the Cubans?
Wouldnt the Coast Guard be offshore looking at things?
this is a very non issue.
This is the silliest thing I''ve heard in weeks from Dictator Bush and his treasonous henchmen. Which now not only include Cheney et al, but also even Feinstein, Rockefeller, and Pelosi herself.
US Warships were attacked by a small group of Iranian gunships who dropped unknown boxes in front of them, sent them a message that they were about to blown up, but weren''t fired upon and then mysteriously disappeared and escaped, despite all of our advanced technology, air power, drones, undersea sonar, and satellites?
And there aren''t even plans to file a protest?
My goodness gracious again. Are we all supposed to be deaf, dumb, and blind now?
ST
"Truth is defined by the weakest of us who must suffer through it."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
The Israel Turkey pipeline has been in the works for some time now. In April of 2006 Israel & Turkey made their announcement which included four pipelines which will bypass Syria & Lebanon. The source of the oil is the BTC pipeline from the Caspian Sea Region. Shareholders in the BTC pipeline are: British Petroleum, AzBTC, Chevron, Statoil, TPAO, ENI, Total, Itochu, INPEX, ConocoPhillips & Amerada Hess. Another very important factor on the war with Lebanon is that Israel will have a strategic role in protecting the pipeline and transportation corridor out of Ceyhan Turkey. The strategy will weaken Russian oil''s role in central asia and also isolate Iran.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Incident
And you can''t see history repeating itself here?
Two U.S. warship attacked by hostile boats off the coast of......
Next came, we must defend by attacking the nation of.....
While I am all for the U.S. defending itself anywhere in the world. I really don''t like it poking another nation in the eye. They will soon get tired of it and fight. In some ways I get a feeling we are doing the bidding of Saudi Arabia.
Done!
underdogus at 07:27 AM : Jan 08, 2008
Southeast asian and Chinese markets represent trillions of dollars in sales. BIG OIL''s needs come first !
It seems the US Navy ships got close to the waters of Iran, Iran in turn send some ships to check them out.
In other words, the US is looking like a police bully who taser someone for looking at him the wrong way.
Do you guys even care how foolish you look in all of this by screaming "harrasment!" like a 13 year-old princess?
Maybe it is what it is supposed to be the world governments are to blame along with religions they have jumped in bed once again with each other and are trying to control with hate and fear.
I remember a time when the United States could be trusted.
I remember a time when we were respected.
I remember a time when we were admired, even by most of our enemies.
But the fascist Bush and his henchmen, including Cheney, Feinstein, Rockefeller, and Pelosi, have erased all of that.
We are now just another simple police state, which Americans, just like the Germans, recognized too late.
ST
"The last days of our once great nation were the most difficult. Arbitrary abduction, forbidden speech, and absolute obedience were extracted from all who lived, even from the Americans who had always been assured of their exclusion."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
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