IRGC watchfully protects Iran waters

The IRGC Navy is fully prepared to carry out its duty in guarding Iran's waters in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, an IRGC official says.

The remarks were made after US officials alleged that a US vessel had opened fire on Iranian patrol boats.

"If UK or US vessels had fired at Iranian boats, based on previous experiences, they would have faced the harshest reaction by Iranian forces," a senior IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) official told Press TV Friday.

An IRGC official had earlier rejected the reports that an American ship had opened fire on Iranian patrol boats in the Persian Gulf.

There has been no confrontation between Iranian boats and US military vessels in the Persian Gulf, he told Press TV.

Citing an unnamed Pentagon official, Reuters had earlier reported that a vessel contracted by the US Military Sealift Command had opened fired on 'Iranian boats'.

Later US Navy Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Cmdr. Lydia Robertson announced that the US ship, the Western Venture, was in Persian Gulf's international waters when it was approached by two small boats of 'unknown origin'.

The Western Venture was queried a few minutes later by the Iranian Coast Guard to determine its identity, Robertson claimed.

US defense officials told Reuters that they suspected the boats were Iranian.

"We don't have complete confirmation of that but we suspect it," one official said.

In January, the US Navy claimed that Iranian boats 'harassed US warships' in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, however, said the incident was a routine identification check.

The White House had to withdraw its allegations after Iran's IRGC released the footage of the incident showing Iranian boats asking the US warships to confirm their identification. Press TV