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US 'fabricated' footage
09/01/2008 16:30 - (SA)
Tehran - Iran's Revolutionary Guards accused the US on Wednesday of fabricating video and audio released by the Pentagon that shows Iranian boats confronting US warships in the Persian Gulf.
The video from Sunday's incident shows small Iranian boats swarming around US warships in the Strait of Hormuz. In the recording, a man speaking in heavily accented English threatened, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes".
"The footage released by the US Navy was compiled using file pictures and the audio has been fabricated," the state-run English-language channel Press TV quoted an official in the Revolutionary Guards as saying.
State TV did not give the name of the Revolutionary Guard figure and did not offer more details about how the official knew the footage was "fabricated".
A 'provocative' act
The Bush administration continued to denounce the incident as "provocative".
"This is a provocative act - not a smart thing to do, and they are going to have to take responsibility for the consequences, if they do it again," US President George W. Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters on Wednesday aboard Air Force One as Bush flew from Washington to Israel.
Hadley added that his comments should not be seen as a threat.
In the four-minute, 20-second video released on Tuesday, the Iranian boats appeared to ignore repeated warnings from the US ships, including horn blasts and radio transmissions, according to the video, which was shot from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper.
From the Hopper, after spotting the approaching Iranian boats, a US Navy crew member says over the radio: "This is coalition warship. I am engaged in transit passage in accordance with international law. Intend no harm."
The audio and video recordings were made separately but were pulled together by the Navy. Often uneven and shaky, the video condenses what Navy officials have said was a 20-minute or so clash.
US 'mischief'
Iran's Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar on Wednesday called Western news reports reporting that the boats threatened to blow up the US warships "mischief".
"(Iranian) Navy units ... asked them to identify themselves. They responded accordingly and continued their path," the official IRNA news agency quoted Najjar as saying.
He also reiterated previous comments made by Iran's Foreign Ministry, downplaying the incident by calling it something that occurs normally.
"The identification of vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian Navy units is a natural occurrence," IRNA quoted Najjar as saying.
"Islamic Republic of Iran Navy units always put questions to passing vessels and warships at the Strait of Hormuz and they need to identify themselves. This is in accordance with the normal procedures."
'Deadly serious'
But the top Navy commander in the Gulf has disputed Iran's claims that the incident was a routine encounter, saying Iran's "provocative" actions were "deadly serious" to the US military.
Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff said the Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged the US warships and threatened to blow up the Navy convoy as it passed near but outside Iranian waters on Sunday. The Iranian fleet "manoeuvred aggressively" and then fled as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire, he said. No shots were fired.
The confrontation was an unusual flare-up of US-Iranian tensions in the Persian Gulf as Bush prepared for his eight-day Mideast trip designed in part to counter Iran's influence in the region. Bush, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday, is expected to discuss the US posture toward Tehran with Arab allies also worried about Tehran's desire for greater regional power.
Many Arab countries fear the Iranian-American rivalry could erupt into a military confrontation that would put them in the crossfire and hurt vital oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards has said that its high-speed boats never threatened the US vessels during the encounter, insisting it only asked them to identify themselves, then let them continue into the Gulf.
Cosgriff, the commander of US 5th Fleet, which patrols the Gulf and is based in nearby Bahrain, said the American vessels, which were clearly marked, had been identified by Iranian authorities earlier in the day.
The Pentagon has said the US ships were on the verge of opening fire on the Iranian boats when they fled.
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