2008 U.S.–Iranian Naval Dispute

The 2007–2008 U.S.–Iranian naval dispute refers to a series of naval stand-offs between Iranian speedboats and U.S. Navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz in December 2007 and January 2008.

Incident

On 6 January 2008, five Iranian patrol boats crewed by the Revolutionary Guard approached three United States Navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz: the cruiser USS ''Port Royal'', the destroyer USS ''Hopper'' and the frigate USS ''Ingraham''. In a compilation of video and audio released by the Pentagon of the most provocative moments of the encounter, the radio officer of the USS ''Hopper'' is seen and heard attempting to make radio contact with the Iranian vessels. A few moments later, another voice radioed the USS ''Hopper'' saying, "I am coming at you. You will explode n or after 'static''minutes."

Early United States reports indicated that because the Iranian boats continued to circle the United States warships and had been seen to drop several packages into the water, the United States ships had no choice but to take the threats seriously and maintain a defensive posture. Pentagon officials said the American ships were about to open fire when the Iranian boats withdrew. The commander of the destroyer USS Hopper publicly denied that the American ships were about to open fire. "The naval commanders seemed most determined, however, to scotch the idea that they had been close to firing on the Iranians...Comdr. Jeffery James, commander of the destroyer Hopper, told reporters that the Iranians had moved away "before we got to the point where we needed to open fire"."
"A separate audio recording of that voice, which came across the VHS channel open to anyone with access to it, was spliced into a video on which the voice apparently could not be heard. That was a political decision, and Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros of the Pentagon's Public Affairs Office told IPS the decision on what to include in the video was 'a collaborative effort of leadership here, the Central Command and Navy leadership in the field.'" Jeff James, Commander of the USS Hopper, said, "During this entire time we were going through our pre-planned responses and our measured, very disciplined responses trying to warn them off before we had to take any lethal action. And fortunately for everybody involved, they turned outbound before we got to the point where we needed to open fire."

United States officials said the Iranians "harassed and provoked" their naval vessels, coming within of one warship. Iranian officials responded by calling the incident a routine contact of a sort that happens all the time in the crowded waters of the Persian Gulf. In response, on 8 January 2008 the Department of Defense released an abridge
four-minute video
segment of the audio and video recordings of the incident that included the radio threat. An Iranian Revolutionary Guard source stated, "The footage released by the US Navy are file pictures and the audio has been fabricated" On 10 January 2008, Iran accused the United States of creating a "media fuss". The Iranian Press TV then released its abridged video of the incident, where no threats can be heard. The United States later released a 36-minute video of the incident. Also mentions a "separate Pentagon-released audio tape came from the Iranian boats. In the recording, a man can be heard saying in accented English: "I am coming to you," and then, "You will explode."

There has been confusion as to the source of the threatening radio transmissions. Persian speakers and Iranians have told ''The Washington Post'' that the accent in the American recording does not sound Iranian. ''The New York Times'' pointed out that the United States-released audio includes no ambient noise of the kind that might be expected if the broadcast had come from one of the speedboats. ''The Navy Times'' wrote that the incident could have been caused by a locally famous heckler known as the "Filipino Monkey", noting that the threatening voice sounds different from that of the Iranian officer. Several media outlets reported that the Navy spliced the audio recording of the alleged Iranian threat onto to a videotape of the incident.Inter Press Service, 10 January 2008, "Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel," archived at http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6314/ "A separate audio recording of that voice, which came across the VHS channel open to anyone with access to it, was spliced into a video on which the voice apparently could not be heard. That was a political decision, and Lieutenant Colonel Mark Ballesteros of the Pentagon's Public Affairs Office told IPS the decision on what to include in the video was "a collaborative effort of leadership here, the Central Command and navy leadership in the field". "But it turned out that the warning was a separate audio recording that was added onto the video..."

The Pentagon spokesman who described the Iranian boats as "highly maneuverable patrol craft" that was "visibly armed" did not note that such boats usually only carry a two- or three-man crew and that they are normally armed only with machine guns. The only boat that was close enough to be visible to the United States ships was unarmed, as an enlarged photo of the boat from the navy video shows.

On 12 January 2008, it was revealed that, contrary to previous reports, the packages the Iranian boats had dropped into the water posed no threat to the United States vessels. The leading United States vessels observed that they were harmless light floating objects and did not report them to follow United States vessels as a danger.

On 12 January 2008, two earlier incidents during December 2007 were revealed by United States Navy officials, one in which the USS ''Whidbey Island'' fired warning shots in response to a small Iranian boat that was approaching it on 19 December. The Iranian boat reportedly then retreated after the shots were fired.

In an 8 July speech to the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Shirazi, a mid-level clerical aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, "The Zionist regime is pressuring White House officials to attack Iran. If they commit such a stupidity, Tel Aviv and U.S. shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran's first targets and they will be burned," according to the student news agency ISNA.

Historical context

The presence of United States warships in the Strait has been a sensitive issue for Iran since 3 July 1988, when the U.S. Navy cruiser shot down an Iranian commercial flight in Iranian airspace over the Strait, killing 290 civilians, an incident for which the United States never apologized, though it did provide monetary compensation.

Territorial context

To travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which at its narrowest is wide, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the ''transit passage'' provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Neither Iran or the United States have ratified the convention, but the United States accepts the traditional navigation rules as reflected in the convention. Iran has stated that it reserves "the right to require prior authorization for warships to exercise the right of innocent passage through its territorial sea." It is unclear if the incident happened in the territorial waters of Iran or Oman.

See also

* 2007 Iranian arrest of Royal Navy personnel
* USS ''Typhoon'' encounter with Iranian Craft (11 April 2008)
* 2011–12 Strait of Hormuz dispute
* Millennium Challenge 2002
* Filipino Monkey
* 2016 U.S.–Iran naval incident

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2008 U.S.-Iranian naval dispute
International maritime incidents
History of the Persian Gulf
2007 in Iran
2008 in Iran
Conflicts in 2007
Conflicts in 2008
Strait of Hormuz
Iran–United States military relations
Presidency of George W. Bush
United States Navy in the 21st century