An Iranian Revolutionary Guard boat approached a United States Navy ship. Photo: AP
The United States Navy had a tense meeting with Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, US officials said Tuesday.
Three ships of the Guard held on I find it “unsafe and unprofessional” As the USS Sirocco and USNS Choctaw County sailed through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf on Monday, the Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in the Middle East, explained.
One of the three fast boats of the Guard sailed directly to the Scirocco before changing course, the Navy added, noting that his ship had fired a warning glow during the accident.
One of the boats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that approached an American ship. Photo: AP
A short video distributed by the Navy showed what happened.
Iran did not immediately recognize the incident in the strait, for which one fifth of the world oil trade passes.
Regional tensions and stalemate in nuclear negotiations
The episode comes at a time of heightened tension in the region as the historic 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers remains in doubt due to stalled negotiations to revive it.
Separately, the UN nuclear control agency said that given the impasse, Iran plans to enrich uranium in a second set of advanced centrifuges at its underground facility in Fordo.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency verified on Tuesday that the country was preparing to enrich uranium through a nonew cascade of 166 advanced IR-6 centrifuges at the plant near the Shia holy city of Qom, approximately 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Tehran. They enrich the product up to 20% purity.
According to the IAEA, the Islamic Republic has not disclosed the level it will achieve in the second cascade, which it has not even publicly acknowledged exists.
The 2015 agreement banned enrichment for Ford. Protected by the mountains, the plant is surrounded by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications.
It is the size of a football field and is large enough to hold up to 3,000 centrifugesbut small enough to make US officials suspect it was for military purposes when they publicly exposed its existence in 2009.
In this tense environment, one suspects Israel carried out a series of attacks inside and outside Iran against the country, including the assassination of the architect of his former nuclear program with a remote-controlled machine gun.
Source: AP
Source: Clarin