2008 Iran–United States naval dispute

Naval dispute June 2020 Strait of Hormuz Resolved peacefully United States Iran United States Navy Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard CorpsBorder Guard Command 3 warships 5 patrol boats The 2008 Iran–United States 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.https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7184400.stm US-Iranian naval dispute deepens BBC 12 January 2008 21 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080115113220/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7184400.stm 15 January 2008 live Incident thumb|300px|Map of Strait of Hormuz with maritime political boundaries thumb|300px|6 January 2008: Iranian speedboats maneuver near U.S. Navy ships 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 Port Royal CG-73 6, the destroyer Hopper DDG-70 6 and the frigate Ingraham FFG-61 6. In a compilation of video and audio released by the Pentagon of the most provocative moments of the encounter, the radio officer of USS Hopper is seen and heard attempting to make radio contact with the Iranian vessels. A few moments later, another voice radioed Hopper saying, "I am coming at you. You will explode [in or after] [static] minutes."http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/07/iran.us.navy/ Iranian ships 'harass' U.S. Navy, officials say CNN 7 January 2008 Barbara Starr 12 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080110203405/http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/07/iran.us.navy/#cnnSTCVideo 10 January 2008 liveDid a Radio Prank Escalate Iran-U.S. Confrontation? NPR 14 January 2008 Ivan Watson https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18086931&ampsourceCode=RSS 15 January 2008 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.January 2008 Pentagon officials said the American ships were about to open fire when the Iranian boats withdrew.Iran says US video was fabricated https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7178878.stm 9 January 2008 1 January 2010 BBC News The commander of Hopper publicly denied that the American ships were about to open fire.Gareth Porter 16 January 2008 How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story Inter Press Service http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/16/6404/ 27 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080119120110/http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/16/6404/ 19 January 2008 live "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.'"14 January 2008 U.S., Iran on Hormuz incident Xinhuanet 10.1088/0022-3719/16/31/011 Janke, E 16 5959 Hutchings M T Day P Walker P J free Jeff James, the commander of 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,http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jan07/0,4670,USNavyIran,00.html Pentagon Says Ships Harassed by Iran FOX News 7 January 2008 Pauline Jelinek 12 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20150924180154/http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jan07/0,4670,USNavyIran,00.html 24 September 2015 dead coming within 200 yd m 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.US doubts over Iran boat 'threat' https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7181929.stm 10.1002/bdra.20327 Källén, Bengt A. J. 79 301 10 January 2008 1 January 2010 BBC News https://web.archive.org/web/20100113172420/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7181929.stm 13 January 2010 live In response, on 8 January 2008 the U.S. Department of Defense released an abridged four-minute video segment of the audio and video recordings of the incident that included the radio threat.http://www.defenselink.mil/news/briefingslide.aspx?briefingslideid=320 Three U.S. Navy Ships Approached by Iranian Boats (video 080107-D-6570C-001) U.S. Department of Defense 7 January 2008 12 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080112064729/http://www.defenselink.mil/news/briefingslide.aspx?briefingslideid=320 12 January 2008 dead 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.https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDAH041277 Iran releases own video of U.S. Gulf incident Reuters 10 January 2008 12 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080116165335/https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDAH041277 16 January 2008 liveInter Press Service, 10 January 2008, "Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel," http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews%3D40747 Politics-US: Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel 2008-01-14 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080113042406/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40747 13 January 2008 archived at – http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6314/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080114045637/http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6314/ 14 January 2008 The United States later released a 36-minute video of the incident.Lolita C. Baldor 12 January 2008 Navy releases longer video of Iranian incident The Statesman (Associated Press) http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/01/12/0112iran.html 27 January 2008 March 2021 medicmedic 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.‘Filipino Monkey’ behind threats? – Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports – Navy Timeshttp://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/1544810 Prankster linked to US-Iran incident 15 January 2008 Television New Zealand 14 September 2011 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20110516205229/http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/1544810 16 May 2011Did a Radio Prank Escalate Iran-U.S. Confrontation? 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," http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews%3D40747 POLITICS-US: Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel 2008-01-14 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080113042406/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40747 13 January 2008 archived at http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6314/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080114045637/http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/11/6314/ 14 January 2008 Gareth Porter 17 January 2008 How the Pentagon planted a false story Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA17Ak03.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080514161407/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA17Ak03.html unfit 14 May 2008 27 January 2008 "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".Baldor Lolita C. Sebastian Abbot 9 January 2008 Ship video shows U.S. encounter with Iran The News Tribune Associated Press http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/249684.html 27 January 2008 The audio and video recordings were separate but pulled together by the Navy. May 2016 medicmedicAhmed Abdullah 12 January 2008 U.S.-Iran stand-off: Mere propaganda or prelude to war? Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=77778 27 January 2008 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20081129011747/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=77778 29 November 2008 "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.https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103730.html Objects From Iranian Boats Posed No Threat, Navy Says Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson The Washington Post 12 January 2008 13 January 2008 On 12 January 2008, two earlier incidents during December 2007 were revealed by United States Navy officials, one in which Whidbey Island LSD-41 6 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.https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080708/wl_nm/iran_nuclear_dc_8 Iran to "hit Tel Aviv, U.S. ships" if attacked Yahoo! News 8 July 2008 9 July 2008 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080716194537/http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080708/wl_nm/iran_nuclear_dc_8 16 July 2008 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 Vincennes CG-49 6 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.The Washington Post 11 January 2008 Iranian Boats May Not Have Made Radio Threat, Pentagon Says https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011000692.html 21 January 2008 Robin Wright Territorial context To travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which at its narrowest is 21 nmi km 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.https://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_historical_perspective.htm The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (A historical perspective) UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea 12 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080114025542/http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_historical_perspective.htm 14 January 2008 live Neither Iran or the United States have ratified the convention,https://www.un.org/Depts/los/reference_files/chronological_lists_of_ratifications.htm Chronological lists of ratifications of, accessions and successions to the Convention and the related Agreements as at 26 October 2007 UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea 15 January 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080114025433/http://www.un.org/Depts/los/reference_files/chronological_lists_of_ratifications.htm 14 January 2008 live but the United States accepts the traditional navigation rules as reflected in the convention.https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/58381.pdf Presidential Proclamation 5030 U.S. President Ronald Reagan 10 March 1983 21 January 2008 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."https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/61543.pdf Limits in the Sea, National Claims to Maritime Restrictions U.S. Department of State U.S. Department of State 25 May 2000 26 January 2008 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 Iran–United States relations during the G.W. Bush administration References 30em Category:International maritime incidents Category:History of the Persian Gulf Category:2007 in Iran Category:2008 in Iran Category:2007 conflicts Category:2008 conflicts Category:History of the Strait of Hormuz Category:Iran–United States military relations Category:Foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration Category:United States Navy in the 21st century Category:Military history of the Indian Ocean