Watch
video of the speedboat incident
Graphic: how the
stand-off unfolded
The radio message received by three American warships as they entered the
narrow Strait of Hormuz sent the crews to action stations for an imminent
attack.
Five Iranian speedboats had been detected on the radar, approaching fast in
the dim light of the early Gulf morning. As they sped towards the group they
slipped suspicious boxes into the water.
However, it was the warning transmitted as they closed in that threatened to
turn a potentially hostile manoeuvre into a dangerous incident that could
have spiralled out of control. “I am coming at you, you will explode in a
couple of minutes,” the message said.
The three warships from the US 5th Fleet – USS Hopper, a
8,300-tonne guided missile destroyer, USS Port Royal, a 9,600-tonne
Ticonderoga-class cruiser, and USS Ingraham, a 4,100-tonne frigate –
prepared to blast the speedboats out of the water, using a combination of
the deadly close-range Phalanx Gatling and other rapid-fire guns.
The aggressive approach of the five boats fitted the profile of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard. Not only did they ignore the warnings from the American
ships but the white boxes, which they were dropping over the side of their
speedboats, forced the Americans to take emergency evasive action.
The most serious incident for years in the Gulf – part of the world where
peace is balanced precariously – was within a few seconds of ending in
violent confrontation. But as the American gun crews prepared to fire,
waiting for the final command, the five speedboats veered away. They were
within 200 metres of the warships.
Despite the difference in size between such speedboats and warships, the
suicide boat attack on the 8,600-tonne USS Cole in 2000 in Aden,
which blasted a hole in the ship and killed 17 American sailors, has served
as a constant reminder of the potential dangers posed by small vessels
packed with explosives.
The confrontation between the five gunboats and the US Navy ships that took
place on Sunday was described by the Pentagon as “the most serious
provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet”. The incident, which lasted
about 20 minutes, was “careless, reckless and potentially hostile”, Bry-an
Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman, said. He demanded an explanation from the
Iranians.
The Pentagon said that the Iranian boats had turned away “at the very moment
that US forces were preparing to open fire in self-defence”.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which took command of Iran’s naval operations
in the Gulf last November, has proved on many occasions that it is prepared
to be antagonistic towards Western warships in the crowded shipping lane,
twice seizing Royal Navy craft and their crews and holding them hostage – in
2004 and again last year. In Sunday’s incident, at about 5am local time, the
Iranian speedboats “swarmed” around the US warships and gave every
indication of wanting to provoke the Americans into opening fire. The threat
to bomb the ships was the first time that the Iranians had used such a ploy
to heighten the tension, although Tehran tried to play the whole incident
down by saying that it was a routine manoeuvre.
Under US rules of engagement, warships under threat are entitled to open fire
in self-defence and to take preemptive action if the evidence points to an
imminent attack. Why the US commanders held back after receiving the radio
message was not clear. But the gamble paid off. No shots were fired and no
one was hurt.
However, Sean McCormack, the US State Department spokesman, said that America
would “confront Iranian behaviour where it seeks to do harm either to us or
our friends or allies in the region”.
The White House said the harassment of the US ships by Iran was “provocative”
and warned Tehran against taking similar action in the future. “We urge the
Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a
dangerous incident in the future,” Gordon Johndroe, the White House
spokesman, said.
Iran insisted that it had not been a dangerous incident. Mohammad Ali
Hosseini, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that, as in other
cases, this incident was resolved when the two sides identified each other.
“The example that happened on [Sunday] was similar to previous cases and is
an ordinary and natural issue,” he told Iran’s official IRNA news agency. He
added: “This is an ordinary issue that happens for the two sides every once
in a while and after the identification of the two sides, the issue is
resolved.”
The confrontation was the latest clash between Washington and Tehran and
appeared to have been timed for the imminent six-day visit of President Bush
to the Middle East. The President is due to travel to the region to try to
boost the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The US acknowledged that it had little insight into Iran’s “very opaque
decision-making process”. Mr Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman, said: “I don’t
know what their intent was.” He said the three US warships had been forced
to conduct some evasive manoeuvring. “The US Navy vessels were prepared to
take appropriate actions in accordance with the ROE [rules of engagement]
but there was no engagement of the vessels,” he said.
The incident surprised many Iran experts who said that Washington and Tehran
had made recent efforts to “de-escalate” their confrontation. One analyst,
sceptical of the speedboats’ intent, said: “Have you ever heard of a suicide
bomber saying ‘Hey, I’m going to blow myself up right now?”
Washington will want to determine whether the Iranian action was the result of
overzealous Revolutionary Guards acting on their own initiative or whether
an intended provocation was planned in Tehran. The second scenario would
suggest that Tehran was underlining its vocal opposition to Mr Bush’s Middle
East visit.
The narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf is one of the world’s
most sensitive strategic locations, with at least a fifth of the world’s
crude oil supply passing through it.
Iranian military commanders have given repeated warnings that if their country
is attacked by the US, blocking the Strait’s narrow choke-point to the Gulf
would be one of several means of retaliation. Oil prices rose about 30 cents
to more than $98 a barrel after news of the incident before slipping back.
But Iranian analysts urged caution, saying that there had been public attempts
by Tehran and Washington recently to ease tensions. The US military had also
misread Iranian radio communications in the past, most notably in 1988 when
the USS Vincennes, an American guided missile cruiser, mistakenly
shot down an Iranian civilian airliner over the Strait of Hormuz, killing
all 290 passengers and crew.
“I’d take this with a very large grain of salt until we get more details. Who
knows, this could be a turning point or it could be an isolated incident
with no significance at all,” said Gary Sick, an Iran specialist at the
University of Columbia who served on the US National Security Council under
Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan. “This is contrary to all the positive
signals we’ve seen in recent weeks from both sides. This strikes me really
as an aberration,” Professor Sick told The Times.
US military commanders in Iraq have said that the reduction of violence in
Iraq was in part due to Iran stemming the flow of weapons to Iraqi militias,
and gave Tehran some credit for the observance of a ceasefire by Moqtada
al-Sadr’s Shia Mahdi Army in Iraq.
Last week Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, stated that relations
with the US could be restored. Some analysts speculated that he was sending
a message to US presidential candidates that less hostile American policies
could lead to reconciliation.
“Both sides have made an effort to deescalate the conflict,” Karim
Sad-jadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace in Washington, said. “But there are forces in both the US and Iran who
don’t want to see an improvement of ties, and whenever efforts are made to
reduce the tension they often create incidents to sabotage this
confidence-building,” he told The Times.
Flashpoints
Shatt al-Arab waterway There is no universally recognised line of
control on the waterway dividing Iran and Iraq. Iran seized British military
personnel in 2004 and 2007, claiming that they illegally entered Iranian
waters
Involvement in Afghanistan Iran is accused of actively supporting
insurgents hostile to Afghan and coalition forces. At least ten Iranians
have been arrested in Herat in Afghanistan, near the Iranian border, and
accused of being intelligence agents
Involvement in Iraq The US has accused Iran of supplying materials,
training and intelligence, including that behind the deadly roadside bombing
campaign, to Iraq’s insurgents. The US military has arrested several Iranian
diplomats on Iraqi soil
Nuclear programme Iran has frustrated international inspectors while
insisting that it has only a civilian nuclear programme and nothing to hide.
The US has led international demands to “hold Iran to account” for any
illegal uranium enrichment
Israel Iran’s openly stated desire for “elimination of the Zionist
regime” in Israel has been widely condemned. Israel accuses Iran of
supporting Palestinian terrorists and has stated that it will not tolerate a
nuclear-armed Iran
Source: Federation of American Scientists; Times archives
