Kamangir (Archer)

“The Recent Iran-US Naval Incident was a Scam” (Important Update)

Kamangir | January 9, 2008 | Category Iran, Islamic Republic, US, media

In a piece titled “The reality of the recent confrontation (?) of the Iranian boats with Americans vessels” (Question mark used by the source), the state-controlled website Tabnak seems to claim that the speedboats which apparently threatened to explode American warships were in fact American, or at least definitely not Iranian. The piece reads [Persian],

Tabnak reporter from Bandar Abbas [the harbor city close to the location of the incident] revealed the real event which happened on the Strait of Hormoz.

Reportedly, Iran has established a control post on the Strait of Hormoz in order to control the passage of ships through the strait and ask them about their destination and activities through wireless.

On the day of the incident, while American ships were passing, as they regularly do, the center contacted them for information. At the time, five boats were present close to the ships. Interestingly, after a 24-hour delay, Pentagon announces that the ships have been contacted by the boats and that the message has contained a threat in English. More interestingly, on the footage, the section where it is said “you’ll explode after an amount of time”, the actual mentioned amount is unintelligible. Most definitely, the ship would have not been able to recognize whether the message had come from the boats or from the post on the harbor.

I have tried to translate the piece with all its ambiguities. Therefore, if you do not understand what they mean, I do not fully understand the Persian text either. Apparently, Tabnak is asserting that this was a scam and that the boats were harmless or even non-Iranian.

Tabnak is considered by many to be the cover for Baztab, a state-controlled website recently filtered due to internal struggles in the Islamic Republic. Interestingly, Baztab English, which is still functional, has two reports on the incident, none of which questions the authenticity of the event (one two).

Fars News also reports that an IRGC senior commander has called th footage a “clumsy fabrication”, mainly because the speedboats in the footage do not carry the “holy” flag of Iran.

“When trafficking in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman to protect the security of the region, all IRGC’s naval vessels carry the holy flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but in this fake film, Americans have left this primary and crucial point unheeded,” the source further added.

Update: In fact, pictures taken in IRGC drills in the Persian Gulf show that not always the “holy” flag is carried by the vessels. The flags on these two speedboats are definitely “holy”, according to some Muslims, but they are Islamic slogans and signs, not the Iranian flag.

Important Update: This picture is taken in a drill IRGC has been a part of (source) and the boat which seems to have no flag on it does look like the boat in the American footage, at least to me. The picture is taken on April 6th, 2007, in the Persian Gulf during the “Great Prophet Joint Drill”.

Update: The speedboat is visible in the minute 4:43 in the footage provided by the Islamic Republic and it does not carry an Iranian flag.