(CNSNews.com) – Iran's defense minister vowed Thursday that any U.S. or other warships that enter Iranian waters would be "severely punished," as the Pentagon confirmed that a U.S. patrol vessel had fired warning shots after being approached by an Iranian attack boat in an "unsafe" manner.
"It is a natural and routine program of the border patrol to do surveillance in the southern waters and to collect intelligence on foreign ships' operations," the Mehr news agency quoted Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan as telling reporters in Isfahan.
