The second incident involving a US warship off the Iranian coast in less than 48 hours, the USS Squall, a coastal patrol ship, was off the coast of Iran when an Iranian government speedboat moved into the area, coming within 200 meters of them. The US warship then turned its .50 cal machine gun on the Iranians and fired “warning shots.”

US officials reacted to the incident with an almost identical statement to the one issued yesterday, when a different US warship parked along a different part of the Iranian coast saw Iranian speedboats and condemned them as “unprofessional and unsafe.”

Iran’s Defense Minister, however, insisted that Iran felt obliged to intercept any foreign warships that entire their territorial waters, and that future American warships could be expected to be confronted off the Iranian coast.

The US has made a long-term decision to have warships parked off the Iranian coast more or less at all times, and has continued those deployments despite a P5+1 nuclear deal which has calmed tensions and reduced the number of US threats to attack Iran.