Iranian naval officials claimed on Thursday that they had successfully intercepted and harassed an American nuclear-powered submarine, a claim the U.S. Navy denied on the grounds that no such submarine was in the region.
According to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, the incident occurred as the USS Florida attempted to enter the Strait of Hormuz.
“The US submarine was approaching the Strait of Hormuz while submerged, but the domestically-manufactured Iranian submarine, Fateh, detected it and carried out … maneuvers to force it to surface and cross the Strait [of Hormuz] on the surface,” Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani claimed, according to the state-run PressTV outlet. Irani made the remarks during an address on Iranian state television on Thursday evening.
“It changed its course with an escort and continued on its way,” Irani alleged, demanding Washington explain the submarine’s presence in the region and accusing it of unspecified violations of “international regulations.” Telesur, a far-left South American outlet, and the Iranian Mehr News Agency quoted Irani as accusing the American submarine of violating Iran’s sovereignty by navigating in the exclusive maritime territory of the country.
Tasnim dramatically claimed that the USS Florida “had made every effort to pass through the Hormuz Strait stealthily,” but the allegedly superior Iranian naval vessel thwarted its plans.
“Iran’s claim is absolutely false,” the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which operates in the waters of the Middle East and is based in Bahrain, denounced later on Thursday. “A U.S. submarine has NOT transited the Strait of Hormuz recently. The claim represents more Iranian disinformation that destabilizes the region.”
Iran’s claim is absolutely false. A U.S. submarine has NOT transited the Strait of Hormuz recently. The claim represents more Iranian disinformation that destabilizes the region. U.S. 5th Fleet continues to operate wherever international law allows. https://t.co/BDLHNlGASB
— U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) April 20, 2023
Reuters noted on Thursday that the Fifth Fleet had confirmed the presence of the USS Florida in the region, but not in the Strait of Hormuz or near Iranian waters. The fleet did confirm on Wednesday that one of its vessels, an “unmanned surface vessel,” transited the Strait of Hormuz,” a test of unmanned systems.
An unmanned surface vessel from U.S. 5th Fleet transited the Strait of Hormuz with two @USCG cutters, April 19, demonstrating the continued operational integration of unmanned & AI systems by U.S. maritime forces in the Middle East.
Read more ⬇️https://t.co/JtNNLym5Ja pic.twitter.com/8ORVsPCScl
— U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) April 19, 2023
“USCGC Charles Moulthrope (WPC 1141) and USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146),” two U.S. Coast Guard cutters, “transited one of the world’s most strategically important straits with an L3Harris Arabian Fox MAST-13 unmanned surface vessel,” the Fifth Fleet announced in a press release this week. “The three vessels sailed south from the Arabian Gulf and through the narrow Strait of Hormuz before entering the Gulf of Oman.”
“We are on the cutting-edge of integrating advanced unmanned technology into our maritime patrols. Our crews are excited to help lead these efforts with our Navy counterparts,” Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Hills, Charles Moulthrope’s commanding officer, said in a press release.
The U.S. Navy did not indicate if the transit attracted any Iranian military attention or resulted in any confrontations in the press release. A Navy spokesperson did tell the Associated Press that an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ship and an Iranian drone “observed” the activity but did not indicate that they took any action. The IRGC is a formal wing of the Iranian military as well as a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
The Iranian military’s boasting follows a week of elevated incendiary rhetoric out of Tehran and months of negotiations that have helped Iran integrate better into its neighborhood, potentially posing a threat to both the United States and neighboring Israel. During this week’s “Iran Army Day,” a holiday that coincided with Israel’s observance of Holocaust Memorial Day, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi threatened to destroy two of Israel’s largest cities, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
“Enemies, particularly the Zionist regime [Israel], have received the message that any tiny action against (our) country will prompt a harsh answer from the armed forces, which will accompany the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv,” Raisi said.
Israel, which has experienced a deterioration in ties to the United States under leftist President Joe Biden, reached out to the communist government of China this week seeking help to influence Iran to stop threatening the annihilation of the country. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen requested help from Beijing in a phone call to his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on Monday.
“I spoke today with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. I called on him to exert his influence on Iran to stop the progress of the nuclear program,” Cohen said in a public statement, “which poses a danger to many countries in the Middle East and the world.”
China’s profile in the Middle East has grown as Biden-era tensions with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other traditional allies in the region have worsened. Most prominently, China helped broker a deal to normalize diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, for years each other’s top geopolitical rivals. The countries remain locked in a proxy war in Yemen but agreed on a deal in Beijing to reopen their respective embassies and restore commercial flights to each other’s countries.
The White House has done little to prevent China from expanding its authoritarian influence in the region, instead insisting it has no “sour grapes” about the Iran-Saudi Arabia deal. The Biden administration also has no clear policy on Iran, initially appearing interested in reviving the failed Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which former President Donald Trump exited, but taking little action in the past two years to do so.
In early April, the Washington, DC, corporate outlet Axios claimed that anonymous sources believed Biden is still seeking a deal with Iran to contain its illegal nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief, as the JCPOA promised.