Iran refuses to receive U.S. protest over ship incident

TEHRAN, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran has refused to receive Washington's protest over the recent incident between Iranian and U.S. naval ships because it used the term "Gulf" instead of "Persian Gulf," the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

"Iran refused to accept the U.S. government's message due to the appearance of the world 'Gulf' instead of 'Persian Gulf' in it and rejected it," Ali-Akbar Rezaie, head of the No. 1 American Affairs Department at Foreign Ministry told IRNA.

"So, on this basis, no message has yet been received and evidently, once a revised version is received, it would be investigated," Rezaie said.

The United States said on Jan. 10 that it had lodged an official protest against Iran over Jan. 6 incident, in which Washington said that five Iranian boats had harassed and threatened three U.S. Navy warships in international waters in the Strait of Hormuz.

"We have in fact now prepared and given to the Swiss a diplomatic note formally protesting this incident," State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

Switzerland has been looking after American interests in Tehran via its embassy since the United States severed its relations with Iran since 1980.

After the ship incident, Bush administration officials immediately warned Iran to refrain from taking "provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."

But Iran responded by calling the incident "something normal" and said the incident has been resolved.