Iran’s military seized two U. S. marine drones in the Red Sea before letting them pass, the latest maritime incident involving the U. S. Navy’s new fleet of drones. U. S. in the Middle East.
Commander Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Middle East-based Navy’s Fifth Fleet, reported the incident Friday to The Associated Press, but declined to give the main points immediately.
Iranian state television broadcast footage it said came from the deck of the Iranian Navy’s Jamaran destroyer, where sailors dressed in life jackets tested what appeared to be two Saildrone Explorers.
State television said Iran’s military on Thursday discovered “several unmanned spy ships deserted on foreign sea routes. “
“After two warnings to an American destroyer to avoid imaginable incidents, Jamaran seized any of the ships,” state television said.
“After securing the foreign waterway, Naval Squadron No. 84 released the ships in an area. “
This is the time for such an incident in recent days, as talks on Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers are at stake.
The past incident involved Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, its normal navy, and occurred in the Persian Gulf.
The Fifth Fleet presented its Unmanned Working Group last year.
The fleet’s service domain includes the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil passes.
It also extends to the Red Sea near the Suez Canal, Egypt’s waterway leading to the Mediterranean and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.
The region has experienced a number of maritime attacks in years.
Off the coast of Yemen, drones loaded with bombs and mines smuggled in by Yemeni Houthi rebels have ships in the midst of years of war in that country.
Near the United Arab Emirates and the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian forces seized oil tankers.
Others have been targeted in incidents that the U. S. Navy has been attacked. The U. S. blames Iran.
The strikes came about a year after then-President Donald Trump’s 2018 resolution to unilaterally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, in which sanctions on Tehran were lifted over a drastic limitation on its uranium enrichment.
Negotiations to revive the now are at stake.
The United States has Iran’s most recent written reaction to Friday’s talks.
Iran is now enriching uranium closer than ever to military-grade levels, as officials blatantly recommend that Tehran can build a nuclear bomb if it so chooses.
Iran has maintained its nonviolent agenda, with Western nations and foreign inspectors saying Tehran had a nuclear program from the military until 2003.