Dubai: Just hours before US President George W. Bush was to embark on his Middle East tour, the White House and US military in the region said Iran was engaging in "provocative acts".
The US military said five Iranian speedboats made hostile manoeuvres against three US navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz during the weekend. The White House warned Iran yesterday against "provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident".
The US State Department said the government would "confront Iranian behaviour" if it threatens the United States or its allies.
Both sides gave conflicting versions of the incident.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hussaini called it "an ordinary occurrence which happens every now and then for both sides." He told the state news agency Irna that it was "similar to past incidents and a natural and an ordinary issue."
Conflicting versions
According to Pentagon accounts, it occurred at about 5am on Sunday when a US cruiser, a destroyer and a frigate were passing through the Strait of Hormuz on their way into the Gulf.
Five small Iranian boats began making threatening manoeuvres against the US ships, dropping boxes in the water and forcing the US ships to take evasive action, the Pentagon official said.
There were no injuries but the official said there could have been. However, the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the very moment that US forces were preparing to open fire" in self-defence. But no shooting took place, according to the American officials.
Speaking to Gulf News, a spokesperson for the Manama-based headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet said: "No US ship was seized."
Musaib Al Nuaimi, Editor-in-Chief of Al Wefaq newspaper in Iran, quoted Iranian officials as saying "nothing new happened."
"Why are the Americans raising the issue at this time? I don't know," Al Nuaimi told Gulf News.
— With additional inputs from agencies
