Iran has forced a US Navy aircraft to turn back after entering its airspace. An Iranian news agency says that the US Navy’s EP3E aircraft entered Iran’s territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman, after which the Iranian Navy warned the US aircraft, after which the US Navy aircraft was forced to turn back. It happened and left the Iranian sea border.
According to the Iranian news agency, the US plane entering Iranian airspace is used to collect information and data through electronic signals.
Iranian media on Sunday reported that the country’s naval forces had warned off a US Navy reconnaissance aircraft from entering Iran’s airspace over the Sea of Oman.
Per the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, a US Navy EP-3E was about to enter Iran’s airspace over the Sea of Oman when Iranian naval forces "gave the plane a warning and blocked its unauthorized entry."
The report did not offer more details about the nature of the "warning" but said the US aircraft ultimately stayed away from Iran’s aerial border and returned to the international routes.
FOX News Digital has reached out to the Department of Defence but did not hear back before publication.
Iran has clashed with the US in the past over the issue of aircraft flying in its airspace. In 2019 Iranian forces blasted a US Navy high-altitude drone out of the sky over the Strait of Hormuz via surface-to-air missile.
Sunday’s episode comes with Iranian-US relations at an all-time low. Efforts to revive the controversial 2015 nuclear deal have stagnated.
Crippling US sanctions have taken aim at Iranian drones, which Washington maintains have been used to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine during its war with Russia.
Tehran has admitted to sending Russia drones but insists it was before Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s border in February 2022.
Last month, the US military carried out several precision airstrikes in Syria, killing eight Iranians, in retaliation for a drone strike Iranian forces conducted on a coalition base that killed one American.