U.S. aircraft challenged as they flew over the Strait of Hormuz on routine patrols, U.S. officials said

By: Gordon Lubold

WASHINGTON—Two American surveillance aircraft flying in what U.S. officials said was international airspace near Iran were threatened by Iranian air defense stations over the weekend, and were told by the Iranians to alter their course or face fire.
The two U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft were challenged by Iranian military officials on Sept. 10 as they flew over the Strait of Hormuz on routine patrols, U.S. officials said.
Using ground-to-air communications, officials at the Iranian air defense station told the crews they were flying near Iranian airspace and that if they didn’t change their course quickly they risked being fired upon, according to a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, Cmdr. Bill Urban.
“We will fire Iranian missile,” was one of the transmissions from the ground, he said. Both the American planes were threatened in three separate radio calls, Cmdr. Urban said in a statement.
U.S. aircraft replied that they were coalition aircraft conducting routine operations in international airspace and they continued their mission.
Iranian government spokesman Mohammad-Bagher Nobakht said Tuesday that he wasn’t aware of the incident, but that it was Iran’s policy to protect its borders and warn against any potential intrusion.
“As soon as any flying object wants to come close, warnings are given,” he said.
Officials at Iran’s U.N. mission didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The military said the interaction with the Iranians was considered unprofessional because of the threat the officials made, but it wasn’t considered unsafe because the surface-to-air weapons that would have been used by the Iranians couldn’t have reached either plane, Cmdr. Urban said.
State Department officials decried the incident, saying it showed Iran had yet to show signs of shifting from its aggressive stance in the region even after the international nuclear agreement reached last year.
“Frankly, there’ve been previous incidents much like this, and they’re concerning, obviously. They escalate tensions,” said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman. ”We have conveyed our concerns to Iran.”
Brig. Gen. Ali Fadavi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces, on Tuesday dismissed suggestions this Iranian vessels had come too close to American ones as “sheer lies,” according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. A spokesman for Iran’s armed forces issued another denial on Sunday, dismissing the U.S. assertions as exaggerations.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 13, 2016