'Revolutionary Guards denies speed boats threatened US Navy ships'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iran's Revolutionary Guards corps on Tuesday denied that its boats sent threatening messages to a US Navy convoy in the Gulf in an incident over the weekend, and it defended its right to ask American vessels to identify themselves. The Guards have said their boats approached the convoy early Sunday and asked the US ships to identify themselves, then allowed them to continue into the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz - a prime Middle East oil-shipping lane. "No threatening messages were exchanged," state television quoted an identified Revolutionary Guards official as saying Tuesday. American officials said the Iranian boats harassed the US vessels and threatened to blow them up, calling the incident a dangerous provocation.