US: Recent Iranian actions in the Persian Gulf are increasing tensions

Following recent actions by IRGC boats approaching American ships in the Persian Gulf, US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau has said that this type of behavior is a cause for concern and unnecessarily increases tensions.

The US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, announced that on Wednesday, after an IRGC speedboat approached two US patrol vessels and a Kuwaiti ship in the Persian Gulf, the USS Squall fired three warning shots at it using a .50 caliber machine gun.

This is the second incident in recent days, and the Pentagon said on Wednesday that four Iranian boats harassed the USS Nitze destroyer at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

A US State Department spokesperson said at a press conference on Thursday: "We consider these actions to be dangerous and unprofessional."

Elizabeth Trudeau added: "We are unaware of the Iranian ships' intentions in these actions, but since our ships were in international waters, we consider such behavior unacceptable."

A spokesperson for the US State Department has stated: "We believe that these types of actions are concerning and unnecessarily increase tensions."

At this press conference, Ms. Trudeau also expressed ignorance about whether these concerns had been raised with Iran through diplomatic channels in response to these two incidents.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the US State Department says that recent actions are "unacceptable," while Hossein Dehghan, the Islamic Republic's Minister of Defense, on Thursday implicitly accused the American destroyer of entering Iranian waters.

Mr. Dehghan said: Iranian naval units' surveillance of foreign vessel traffic in the Persian Gulf "naturally takes place in our own territorial waters."

Source: Radio Farda