Iran video shows no naval face-off

The U.S. lodged a formal protest with Iran over the Persian Gulf confrontation.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Iran broadcast video Thursday of its boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf in an apparent attempt to show that there was no confrontation between the vessels.

The grainy five-minute, 20-second video showed a man speaking into a hand-held radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. It appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the American warships.

The footage did not show any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. vessels or any provocation. But the short clip likely did not show Sunday’s entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials described as threatening.

The United States lodged a formal diplomatic protest with the Iranian Foreign Ministry through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters. He also dismissed the Iranian video, insisting that the U.S. military’s version of events was correct.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman could not be reached to comment on the diplomatic protest.

The clip aired on Iran’s state-run English-language channel Press TV, whose signal is often blocked inside Iran. It also aired on the state-run Al-Alam Arabic channel, with an announcer saying the video showed “a routine and regular measure.”

At first, the footage was broadcast without sound, but state TV later aired it with audio of radio transmissions between the boats.

“Coalition warship 73, this is [an] Iranian navy patrol boat, how do you copy?” a man’s voice said in heavily accented English.

“This is coalition warship 73, I read you loud and clear. We are operating in international waters,” an American voice replied.

A Pentagon official said the video appeared to have been taken around the time of Sunday’s confrontation but that the controversial parts of the incident were edited out. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Pentagon has released its own video of Sunday’s incident, showing small Iranian boats swarming around U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz.

In the recording, a man threatens in English, “I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes.”