U.S. Describes Confrontation With Iranian Boats

WASHINGTON — In a brief confrontation in the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, five armed Iranian fast boats took aggressive actions on Sunday around three United States Navy warships in international waters, according to a Pentagon spokesman, who called the moves “reckless and dangerous.”

The confrontation, which ended uneventfully after about 20 minutes took place as the three American vessels were sailing into the Persian Gulf, according to Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. The American vessels were a destroyer, a frigate and a cruiser.

The Iranian government played down the episode, saying that it ended immediately when the vessels recognized one another. But Mr. Whitman and other officials described a tense confrontation in the strait, a narrow but vital passage through which millions of barrels of oil move each day. Oil prices on world markets spiked briefly on the news, which was first reported by CNN.

In Iran, the Fars news agency posted an account quoting an unnamed source at the Revolutionary Guard saying that the Iranian boats noticed the naval vessels getting close to Iranian territory, and that the American vessels identified themselves. “Nothing out of ordinary happened, and the vessels left,” he was quoted as saying.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammadali Hosseini also told the official Irna news agency that the incident was “quite normal,” something that frequently happened.

The confrontation came at a time of considerable tensions between the two countries, and a day before President Bush was to visit the region for a weeklong tour aimed both at encouraging Middle East talks and conveying a message that Iran continues to pose a serious threat.

The White House warned Tehran against any repetition of the confrontation.

“We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future,” said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

One Defense Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe early reports from the Navy’s regional headquarters in Bahrain, said that the Iranian boats made a radio threat that the American ships would explode.

“The five Iranian fastboats essentially came in and charged the ships,” the Defense Department official said. The verbal warnings heard in English over the internationally recognized bridge-to-bridge radio channel said, “I am coming at you, and you will explode in a few minutes,” the official said.

A few minutes later, one of the Iranian boats placed two white boxes, possibly meant to be taken for mines, in the wake of one of the Navy ships, which caused another of the American vessels to take evasive action.

“Whether they’re just testing us to learn about our procedures, or actually trying to initiate an incident, we don’t know,” the official said.

The five fastboats were identified by Defense Department officials as belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Traditionally, the I.R.G.C. maritime forces have operated in a far more hostile manner than the regular Iranian navy.

“We have found in the past that the regular Iranian navy was a courteous and professional organization, and our relations are as we would have with any other navy in the world,” said one Pentagon official who has studied the issue. “The I.R.G.C. navy has a tendency to act in these unprofessional ways, and to be very provocative at times.”

Last March, Iranian Revolutionary Guard sailors captured 15 British sailors in waters the British insisted were international, and held them for nearly two weeks.

The Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, wrote in an analysis that the accusations were baseless and aimed at depicting Iran as a threat ahead of President Bush’s trip to the region. It said that the news received considerable attention in the Arab media.

“This was a media show by Bush to pretend his trip is important to the Middle East and to make the Arab countries feel that they need the U.S. forces in the region for security,” it wrote.

In actions last year that brought immediate expressions of concern from senior Navy and Defense Department officials, the Iranians began operating in ways that led American officials to believe that Iran had turned command of its naval missions in the Persian Gulf over to the Revolutionary Guard, and stripping the regular Iranian navy of that responsibility.

As the Iranian fastboats approached, the American warships issued warnings and “conducted evasive maneuvering,” said Mr. Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman. The American warships, he said, were “prepared to take appropriate action.”

The United States has conducted significant war games to prepare for the kind of incident that occurred over the weekend, as Navy officers have expressed concerns that the smaller Iranian fleet would choose to confront American warships in an asymmetrical manner by swarming with larger numbers of smaller craft.

In an interview in Bahrain last month, Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, commander of American naval forces in the region, said that while Iran was unlikely to try and close the strait, it might take actions to intimidate American allies in the Persian Gulf and to illustrate its ability to damage global prosperity.

“I wake up thinking about Iran, I go to bed thinking about Iran,” Admiral Cosgriff told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates during a visit to Bahrain.

Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran.

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