Iran Guards report new incident with US Navy in Gulf as Teheran condemns US sanctions

TEHERAN (AFP) - Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday (July 29) that the US Navy had approached their patrol vessels in the Gulf and fired flares in what it called a provocative move.

"At 4 pm (7:30pm Singapore time) on Friday, the supercarrier USS Nimitz and its accompanying warship, while being monitored by the Guards' frigates, flew a helicopter near the Resalat oil and gas platform and approached the force's ships," the Guards said.

"The Americans in a provocative and unprofessional move, sent a warning message to the frigates and fired flares."

The Guards "ignored the unconventional move by the US ships and continued their mission, after which the supercarrier and its warship left the area," the statement added.

On Tuesday, a US Navy patrol ship fired warning shots at a Guards boat in the Gulf as it closed in on the American vessel, US officials said. The Guards denied approaching the US ship on that occasion and said it was the American vessel that had been at fault.

There have been a string of close encounters between US ships and Iranian vessels in the Gulf in recent months. In January, the USS Mahan destroyer fired warning shots at four Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels that approached at high speed in the Strait of Hormuz, which connects it to the Indian Ocean.

The Revolutionary Guards are a paramilitary force that answers directly to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The force's boats periodically approach US warships in international waters and the Strait of Hormuz, ignoring US radio messages and giving little indication of their intentions.

In January 2016, the Iranians briefly captured the crew of two small US patrol boats that strayed into Iranian waters. The 10 US sailors were released 24 hours later.

The latest incident comes after the US Congress approved new sanctions against Iran, a day after Teheran tested a satellite-launch rocket. Iran on Saturday condemned them and vowed to continue with its missile programme.

"We will continue with full power our missile programme," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state broadcaster IRIB.

"We consider the action by the US as hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable, and it's ultimately an effort to weaken the nuclear deal," Ghasemi added, referring to a 2015 agreement with the United States and other world powers that lifted some sanctions on Teheran.

"The military and missile fields... are our domestic policies and others have no right to intervene or comment on them.

"We reserve the right to reciprocate and make an adequate response to the US actions," he said.

The sanctions Bill, which also targets Russia and North Korea, was passed by the US Senate on Thursday, two days after being approved by the House of Representatives. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Friday that President Donald Trump will sign the Bill into law.

The US Treasury singled out six companies owned or controlled by Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which it said was central to the programme, freezing their US assets and barring US citizens from dealing with them.