"I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea," he tweeted.
Iran-US tensions in the Persian Gulf have escalated since April 15, when US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that 11 high-speed boats, belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), repeatedly came close to American military vessels in “dangerous and harassing approaches” in the Persian Gulf.
Reacting to the claim, Iranian Foreign Ministry announced on April 20 that “We principally consider foreigners and American presence in the region as provocative and illegal. This is our region and we have to ensure its security by carrying out patrols,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said on Monday in his weekly presser.
IRGC issued a statement on Sunday, noting that the main source of mischief and insecurity in the region is the illegal presence of US terrorist forces, reiterating the call for the full withdrawal of all American forces from the Persian Gulf and West Asia. "At the same time, the US Fifth Fleet, which is stationed in the region, offered an incorrect and purposeful narrative of this incident in its official statement, which signifies the interest of Americans in presenting a Hollywood-style account of what happened," reads part of the statement.
“We are responsible to secure the key Hormuz Strait waterway,” Mousavi said, adding, “Other forces should notice warnings and we advise them to leave the region sooner so that peace and stability would return.”
Iranian official shave called several times for foreign forces to leave the region and for regional states to get united for ensuring regional security.
MNA/
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