U.S. Forced Jet to Alter Course Over Gulf, Iran Charges
NICOSIA, Cyprus — An American warship forced an Iranian jetliner to change course over the Persian Gulf earlier this week, a senior Iranian airline official said Thursday.
The airline official, reached in Tehran by telephone, said the plane was en route from Shiraz in southern Iran to Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday when a U.S. Navy vessel near Bahrain “ordered the pilot to change his flight path.”
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, said Thursday in Washington that U.S. Navy planes intercepted the jetliner.
Rajaie-Khorassani said the intercept occurred Tuesday, but he did not say provide any details.
The Pentagon said it had no information on such an incident, and the White House expressed skepticism that it took place.
“We don’t know anything about any diversion of any Iranian aircraft,” presidential spokesman Dan Howard said.
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