Iran harassed a US-flagged cargo ship last week: US

WASHINGTON: Iran´s Revolutionary Guards "harassed" a US-flagged commercial ship last week in the Gulf, days before seizing control of another cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The two incidents over a five-day period raised concerns about the security of shipping lanes in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

"It´s difficult to know exactly why the Iranians are behaving this way," Warren said.
"We call on them to respect all of the internationally established rules of freedom of navigation, the law of the sea to which they are a signatory and other established protocols," he said.

In the April 24 incident, four Iranian patrol boats with the country´s elite Revolutionary Guards "harassed a US-flagged merchant ship called the Maersk Kensington" as it moved along an established shipping route, he said.

The Iranian vessels "followed her for approximately 15 to 20 minutes in actions the ship master of the Kensington interpreted as aggressive," he said.

The American military was not involved in the incident and the Kensington´s captain later filed a report with the US Navy describing the event.

On Tuesday, Iranian boats forced a Marshall Islands-flagged ship, the Maersk Tigris, to Iran´s Larak Island after firing warning shots across the bow and boarding the vessel.

Iran has said it seized control of the container ship due to a commercial dispute with Denmark´s giant Maersk group, which chartered the vessel to ferry cargo in the region.

When it was intercepted, the Tigris was traveling on an international shipping route within Iran´s territorial waters.

Iran´s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking at New York University, said a lawsuit was filed against the ship´s owners between 15 and 16 years ago over undelivered cargo.