Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces fired warning shots at a Singapore-flagged commercial ship in the Gulf on Thursday, before vessels from the United Arab Emirates came to its aid, US officials said.
The Iranian patrol craft fired across the bow of the Alpine Eternity in international waters and the commercial ship then headed towards the UAE, two defence officials told AFP.
The Alpine Eternity issued a radio call for help to the UAE and the Iranian boats fired a second wave of warning shots, the officials said.
UAE authorities heard the radio call and deployed coast guard boats in response. The Iranian boats then departed the area, officials said.
A US naval ship was about 20 miles away from the Alpine Eternity but received no request for assistance, officials said.
The incident reflected rising tensions in the Gulf in recent weeks after Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel. The commercial cargo ship was later released, after Iranian officials said a commercial dispute had been settled.
The Alpine Eternity is an oil-chemical tanker that had last stopped at a port in Bahrain, according to the marinetraffic.com shipping website. The ship is listed as part of the fleet of Transpetrol, a commercial shipping firm that transports oil and gas, with offices in Belgium, Bermuda, Norway and Switzerland.
The news comes as Barack Obama meets Arab Gulf leaders at a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council intended as a display of unity after disagreements over US nuclear talks with Iran and faltering military cooperation in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
