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Iran scene to the fore during Bush visit

— Photo: AFP

Picture released by the U.S. Navy on Wednesday shows small craft suspected to be of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy manoeuvring near U.S. Navy ships (not in the picture) in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

DUBAI: The situation in Iran including the alleged near confrontation between Iranian speedboats and American warships in the Strait of Hormuz has surfaced prominently as U.S. President George Bush embarked on an eight-day visit to West Asia on Wednesday.

Soon after receiving Mr. Bush in Tel Aviv, Israeli President Shimon Peres issued a warning to Tehran. He said, “Iran should not underestimate Israel’s response for self-defence.” Mr. Peres called for Washington’s help to “stop the madness of Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas.” Hizbollah is a Lebanon-based militant organisation close to Iran. The Palestinian group Hamas has also established close relations with Tehran.

Earlier Iran’s Revolutionary Guards dismissed as “fabricated” a U.S. video that showed aggressive movement by Iranian speedboats which nearly collided with a U.S. warship. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow channel on the edge of the Gulf through which a bulk of the region’s oil exports pass.

Iran’s Press TV quoted a representative of the Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) that the U.S. Navy had compiled the video using file pictures. He added that the audio in the footage that also had been fabricated. In the audio recording, an Iranian radio operator appears to be saying, “I am coming at you; you will explode.”

Before embarking on his visit to Israel, Mr. Bush had said the incident had led to “dangerous situation.” He described the alleged Iranian action as “provocative.”

Rebutting Washington’s claims, Speaker of Iran’s Parliament Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said the U.S. had embarked on a “psychological and propaganda campaign” against Iran. “If one side should charge others of meddling in this region, that side would be Iran, because, unlike the Americans, who came from thousands of kilometres away and stationed their navy ships in the Persian Gulf, we are a natural neighbour of this waterway.”

The Palestinian group Hamas has also roundly criticised Washington’s policies and Mr. Bush’s visit. The BBC quoted Sami Abu-Zhuri, senior Hamas official, as saying, “Bush has come to the region only to give political, moral and material support to the Israeli occupation and also to widen the internal Palestinian rift.”

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