US President Donald Trump said he had ordered the U.S. Navy to destroy any Iranian boats if they approached US ships in the Gulf waters, a week after 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guards boats approached a short distance from US warships in the Gulf.

"After the IRGC announced it had launched its first military satellite in orbit, it directed the US Navy to destroy any Iranian boats if our ships at sea provoked it," Trump wrote on Twitter.

The US Navy said last Wednesday that Iranian boats approached six American ships on the sixth of this month, while carrying out training missions in the Gulf waters. A statement of the American Fifth Fleet stated that the Iranian boats approached several American ships several times, for a distance ranging between 9 and 45 meters.

#ICYMI: Iranian #IRGCN vessels with weapons manned harassed #USSLewisBPuller (ESB 3) while operating in international waters in the North Arabian Gulf. US crews took actions deemed appropriate to avoid a collision.

Learn more about the # USNavy's ESB: https://t.co/nhstyAIAOW pic.twitter.com/NBv13TRCSG

- US Navy (@USNavy) April 16, 2020

Iran’s novel
In contrast, the Revolutionary Guards stated that the Iranian boats ’movement came after American ships intercepted an Iranian ship, while it was on its way back from a mission in the southeast of the Iranian island of Farsi.

The Revolutionary Guards described the American account of what happened on the sixth of this month as an "excessive Hollywood version" of what happened. The Revolutionary Guards indicated that it increased its patrols in the Gulf waters to reduce what it described as the adventures and unprofessional behavior of the American forces.

There have been frequent incidents of Iranian military boats approaching US warships in 2016 and 2017. On several occasions, the US Navy has fired warning shots at Iranian boats as it approaches them closely.

The U.S. Navy has the authority to act in self-defense, but Trump's statement goes to what appears to be further than that, and this is likely to increase tension between Iran and the United States.

Increased tension. It
is noteworthy that the tension between Iran and the United States escalated at the beginning of the year, after the United States killed the commander of the Qods Force in the Revolutionary Guards, General Qassem Soleimani, in early January.

On January 8, Iran retaliated with a missile attack on Ain al-Assad base in Iraq, where American forces are stationed. No American forces were killed in the attack, but more than 100 of them were later diagnosed with concussions in the brain.