Iran says Gulf incident was "normal" and was resolved

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday that a confrontation between Iranian boats and US Navy ships in Gulf over the weekend was "something normal" and was resolved. It suggested the Iranian boats had not recognized the US vessels. The Pentagon said that in the incident early Sunday, five small Iranian boats repeatedly "charged" US warships in the Gulf's Hormuz Strait and dropped boxes in the water. The boats warned the US ships that they would set up "explosions," a US Defense Department official said. The US craft were on the verge of opening fire when the Iranian boats fled, the official said, calling the incidident "the most serious provocation of its sort" in the Gulf. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini played down the incident, suggesting it was an issue of mis-identification. He did not comment on the US claims of the Iranian boats' actions.