Adding to the number of “dangerous and unprofessional” incidents that the US Navy is complaining about off the coast of Iran, officials are now claiming that they had seven Iranian speedboats come within a half kilometer of them, and follow the USS Firebolt, which was operating off the Iranian coast, for “about eight minutes.”
Officials also claimed one of the Iranian boats got in front of the US ship and stopped, forcing the US ship to change course. The US Navy is warning that it was a “dangerous harassing situation” that could result in future US “defensive measures.”
US officials claimed two similar incidents last month, in which Iranian speedboats came to within visual range of US warships off their coast. Iran insists that they will continue to take such measures when foreign warships approach their territorial waters uninvited.
While top US officials continue to rail about the “unsafe” measures, analysts doubt that such incidents are really a huge matter, saying they are likely “a lower-level commander trying to show off.”
