Iran vessels make speedy intercept of ship

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said yesterday that two of the Iranian vessels came within 300 yards of the USS Nitze in an incident that was “unsafe and unprofessional.” The vessels harassed the destroyer by “conducting a high speed intercept and closing within a short distance of Nitze, despite repeated warnings,” the official said. IRGC, the Islamic Republic’s praetorian guard, is suspicious of US military activity near Iran’s borders and appears to be sticking to a familiar posture in the Gulf that predates last year’s nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers, including the US.