Pentagon accuses Iran of ‘unprofessional’ conduct near US Navy ship

The Pentagon has accused Iran of “unsafe and unprofessional” conduct by a naval helicopter that it said flew within about 20 metres of a US Navy ship and circled it three times in the Gulf of Oman.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said on Monday the Iranian helicopter circled the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship, three times and at one point flew as low as 3 metres (10 feet) off the surface of the water. 

He said the incident on November 11 had no effect on the Essex's operations.

“Without getting into specifics, the crew of the Essex took the appropriate force protection measures they felt that they needed to, and they acted in accordance with international law,” Kirby said.

The US Navy periodically has reported what it characterises as unsafe and unprofessional encounters with Iran naval forces in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. 

READ MORE: Iran FM: Tehran may work with US over oil, Gulf security, not on Israel

Tensions in Sea of Oman

On November 3 Iran's state media reported that the country's Revolutionary Guards thwarted an attempt by the US navy to seize a tanker in the Sea of Oman carrying its oil.

The report gave no details of the date of the incident or the country where the vessel was registered.

"The United States stopped a tanker exporting Iranian oil and transferred its cargo to another tanker which it directed towards an unknown destination," it said.

"The naval arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards then captured the tanker with air support," it said, without specifying which vessel it was referring to.

A US defence official called the Iranian explanation "inaccurate and untrue."

Aerial videos posted by Iran's Fars news agency show US naval vessels and much smaller Iranian speedboats following and circling the tanker, but give no clarity on the circumstances of the incident.

The US accusation comes amid faltering efforts to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that would see a lifting of US sanctions on its oil exports.

President Joe Biden has expressed willingness to rejoin the nuclear deal, but talks on the practicalities have been suspended since June.

READ MORE: The Iran nuclear deal may soon become Biden’s second major failure