TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- U.S. claims about Iranian vessels veering dangerously close to American warships were exaggerated and stemmed from fear of Iran’s power, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces said Sunday.
"The Islamic Republic’s vessels always act in full awareness of international rules and regulations and based on defined norms,” Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "Therefore the (American) claims are not only untrue, but stem from their fear of the power of the Islamic Republic’s soldiers.”
Gen. Jazayeri was responding to concerns voiced by U.S. officials about near-confrontations between U.S. ships and Iranian vessels in and around the Persian Gulf.
In one such incident last month, a U.S. Navy spokesman said four vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps approached an American destroyer at high speed, ignoring radio communications and other warnings. Iranian boats also made a close approach to an American ship in the Strait of Hormuz in July.
While interactions between Iranian and U.S. ships are common, American officials have raised growing alarm recently about the risk of an escalation at sea between the two rivals.
Gen. Jazayeri, however, said American claims of close approaches weren’t accurate.
"When Iranian vessels pass the Americans a few kilometers from them, they claim that the Iranian boats have come within one kilometer,” he said.
 Jazayeri noted that in safeguarding Iran's sea borders and economic interests, the Iranian naval units will never be deterred by the media propaganda of extra-regional enemies and their stooges in the region.
"In the pursuit of its interests and in accordance with established marine principles, the Islamic Republic of Iran will never be swayed by any power,” he  said.
Noting that Washington still continues with its hegemonic approaches, he emphasized that as has been proved over the past 37 years since the Islamic Revolution, Iran would never tolerate such policies and would confront any move aimed at undermining its territorial integrity.
In January, Iran's Navy arrested the crews of two U.S. patrol boats that had trespassed on Iranian territorial waters. Iran released them after establishing that they had done so by mistake.
Iran has invariably asserted that it only uses its naval might for defensive purposes and to send across the Islamic Republic’s message of peace and security to other nations.