Iran: "Claims that the Revolutionary Guard threatened US warship are baseless"

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The Iranian Ministry of Defense has denied the U.S. Navy's claim that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) fast boats conducted threatening maneuvers around U.S. warships in international waters of the Gulf.

According to foreign media including the Associated Press, Amir Hatami, Iran's Minister of Defense, stated on the 17th (local time), "The claim that our military threatened their warships is baseless," adding, "The real party threatening security in the Persian Gulf is the United States, which has come from the opposite side of the Middle East and illegally stationed itself here." Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's Foreign Minister, also criticized on Twitter the same day, saying, "The U.S. military has come 7,000 miles from their borders to the Middle East," and "The U.S. Navy is lost near Iran's territorial waters and does not even know what it is doing in our backyard."

Earlier, the U.S. Navy announced that on the 15th, in international waters in the northern Gulf of the Arabian Sea, 11 IRGC fast boats approached within 10 meters of six U.S. warships conducting operations, and despite warning signals, conducted threatening maneuvers for about an hour before departing. The U.S. Navy condemned the IRGC's actions as violations of international law and emphasized that such measures should not be repeated.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.