DUBAI (Reuters) -Vessels in the northern Gulf have received multiple VHF radio challenges, including demands to alter course, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Friday, adding they could be part of an Iranian military exercise.
The UKMTO, which monitors marine security in the region, advised seafarers that vessels near Iranian waters may experience such VHF hailing during the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ exercise.
Naval units from the Revolutionary Guards were conducting operations in the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz on Friday as part of the exercise, called Great Prophet 19, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The commander of the IRGC Navy, Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, said the exercises, which began in early January, carried a message of peace and friendship for neighbouring countries, Iranian media reported.
Earlier, the UKMTO reported an incident involving a vessel 86 nautical miles northeast of Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia. The ship, which was approached by a small military craft flashing a green laser and urged to enter Iranian territorial waters, proceeded to its next port of call.
The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Joint Maritime Information Center, part of a 46-nation naval partnership, said on Friday it had investigated and found there was a possible connection between the incident reported by UKMTO and the Great Prophet 19 exercise.
It did not provide any further information.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir and Federico Maccioni; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Alison Williams)
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