IRGC action against two US Coast Guard ships in Persian Gulf

IRGC action against two US Coast Guard ships in Persian Gulf reported as harassment in the Wall Street Journal today.

Navy officials told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that a group of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels harassed two US Coast Guard ships in the Persian Gulf at the beginning of April.

IRGC takes action against two US Coast Guard ships in Persian Gulf

The incident took place on April 2, just a day after the US, Iran and European nations announced that they would conduct talks.

They were talking of return to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.

Nowadays, the US and European nations are currently conducting talks with Iran in Vienna.

Some three fast-attack boats and one ship called the Harth 55 swarmed two Coast Guard ships in the southern Persian Gulf.

They came as close as 70 yards to the bows of the two vessels, Navy officials stated.

One of the two US vessels, the Wrangell, was forced to make defensive maneuvers to prevent a collision.

The incident took place over a three-hour period, with the American crews issuing multiple warnings to the Iranian ships.

Meanwhile, Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, told the Journal that the crew of the Iranian Harth 55 responded to bridge-to-bridge radio queries from the American vessels.

However, it remains unclear what they stated in the communication.

She further said that after approximately three hours of the US issuing warnings and conducting defensive maneuvers, the IRGCN vessels maneuvered away from the US ships.

Besides they opened distance between them, according to a statement from Rebarich.

Meanwhile, he Navy referred to the incident as “unsafe and unprofessional.”

This came as the first such incident since April 2020 and the first one recorded using a vessel as large as the Harth 55.

GTV