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A U.S. Navy destroyer had another close encounter with an Iranian Revolutionary Guard "fast attack craft" in the Persian Gulf Monday.

Two U.S. officials tell Fox News that the Iranian ship came within 1,000 yards of the guided missile destroyer USS Mahan with its weapons manned.

NAVY DESTROYER FIRES WARNING SHOTS AT IRANIAN VESSELS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ

The officials said the Mahan altered course to avoid the Iranian warship, sounded the danger signal, fired flares and manned its own weapons.

The Iranian ship did not come closer than 1,000 yards and no warning shots were fired.

"Coming inbound at a high rate of speed like that and manning weapons, despite clear warnings from the ship, is obviously provocative behavior," said one American official in describing the Iranian actions.

In January, USS Mahan fired warning shots at four Iranian vessels near the Strait of Hormuz. In that incident, the Mahan tried to order the boats to stop via bridge-to-bridge radio communication, but the vessels didnt respond, prompting the destroyer to fire three warning shots with a .50 caliber machine gun.

According to the U.S. military, Iran harassed U.S. Navy warships through "unprofessional" interactions at least 35 times in 2016, a jump of more than 50 percent from the previous year.

Among the most notable incidents from that period:

- In late November, an Iranian small boat in the Strait of Hormuz trained a machine gun on a U.S. Navy helicopter.

- U.S. warships have been targeted by rebels in Yemen who are being supplied and supported by Iran.

- In September, Iran threatened to shoot down Navy aircraft it said was encroaching on its airspace.

- In early September, seven Iranian boats harassed a U.S. Navy ship in the Persian Gulf.

Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews

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Navy destroyer has close encounter with Iran vessel in ...

In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press published last week, President Trumpsuggested that Iran had broken the spirit of a nuclear proliferation deal agreed under President Barack Obama. Asked if he believed the United States would stay in the deal, Trump replied: It's possible that we won't.

The comment seemed to offer another hint that Trump may plan to upend the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) approved in 2015. As a candidate, Trump repeatedly criticized the horrible nuclear deal, pledging to tear up the accord if elected.

But Iran's top diplomat doesn't seem to be worried. According to reports in the Iranian news media, Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif told reporters at the sidelines of a cabinet sessionon Wednesday that they shouldn't take Trump's comments seriously.

Do not pay much attention to Trumps words, Zarif said, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

Zarif may have a point. While Trump has talked tough about Iran since taking office in January, he has taken little action against the JCPOA. In fact,Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to Congress earlier this month that clearly stated Iran was complying with the terms of the nuclear deal.Trump has been accused of walking back or reversing a number of his foreign policy positions from the campaign, including policies on Syria, China and NATO.

However, Tillerson's letter also suggested that the Trump administration is looking for other ways to target Iran, and Bloomberg reported that the president himself intervened to toughen the language of the letter. Trump also prompted Tillerson's later comments at the State Department that sharply criticized the deal, the news agency reported.

Iran has been targeted in other ways, too. It was one of seven countries whose citizens were banned from entering the United States for 90 days under an executive order signed by Trump, though that order has since been suspended. After an apparent Iranian missile test, Trump's then-national security adviser, Michael Flynn, declared that the United States was putting the countryon notice.

In English-language tweets last week, Zarif suggested that itmight be the United States that ultimately failed to comply with the JCPOA.

Notably, Iranians will vote in a presidential election on May 19, a vote that some are calling a referendum on the JCPOA. Zarif likely knows more than most that aggressive foreign policy rhetoric often plays well with a domestic audience, even if a more pragmatic approach can be taken diplomatically.

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Irans supreme leader thanks Trump for revealing the real face of the United States

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Iran's top diplomat says you should ignore Trump's comments on the nuke deal - Washington Post

Saudi Arabia knew it would lose share because Iran's production was on the rebound, said Robin Mills, founder of Dubai-based consultancy Qamar Energy.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, is losing market share to Iraq and Iran as a result of OPEC's agreement to curb supplies to bolster prices, according to the head of research at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

"If you're talking about winners, you can count Iran and Iraq," Christof Ruehl said at a conference in Dubai.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to production limits for most of its members at a meeting in November and brought 11 other nations on board with the deal in December. Saudi Arabia, OPEC's biggest producer, agreed to cut output by 486,000 barrels a day while Iraq said it would cut 210,000 barrels a day. Iran was permitted to increase output by 90,000 barrels a day, according to the OPEC accord.

Saudi Arabia knew it would lose share because Iran's production was on the rebound, said Robin Mills, founder of Dubai-based consultancy Qamar Energy. "The Saudis agreed to production cuts at a time when Iranian production was at a high."

Saudi Arabia cut production from about 10.5 million barrels a day in December to as low as 9.87 million daily in January and 10 million a day last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Iran's output rose to 3.8 million barrels a day in January, the highest since April 2010, the data show. The Persian Gulf country insisted it needed to recover its market share following years of sanctions that penalised its oil industry until January 2016.

Iraq pumped 4.43 million barrels a day in March, down 200,000 barrels for the year, according to the data.

The struggle over market share is most pronounced in Asia, according to Mills and Edward Bell, commodities analyst at Dubai-based lender Emirates NBD PJSC. Iran and Iraq increased crude sales to China last month, while Saudi Arabia slipped behind Russia and Angola as the largest suppliers to the nation, data released Tuesday by the General Administration of Customs show.

"The Saudis are losing out because other countries are able to squeeze out more production," Bell of Emirates NBD said. Saudi Arabia is cutting crude pricing to Asia to hold on to its share, Bell said.

"The OPEC market share battle hasn't gone away," he said.

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Iran, Iraq boost oil market share at Saudi Arabia's expense - The Australian Financial Review

Forbes

Israel-Syria-Iran Conflict Would Severely Strain Iran Nuclear Agreement Forbes Israel's overt entrance into the Syrian civil war is increasingly becoming a very real risk despite the Israeli government's stated desire to remain neutral beyond conducting periodic airstrikes targeting Syrian and Iranian heavy weapons shipments to ... 'We will not allow Iranian forces and Hezbollah on Golan border'Arutz Sheva all 36 news articles »

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Israel-Syria-Iran Conflict Would Severely Strain Iran Nuclear Agreement - Forbes

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer fired a warning flare toward an Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel coming near it in the Persian Gulf, an American official said on Wednesday, the latest tense naval encounter between the two countries.

The incident happened Monday as the vessel attempted to draw closer to the USS Mahan despite the destroyer trying to turn away from it, said Lt. Ian McConnaughey, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

The Mahan made several attempts to contact the Iranian vessel by bridge-to-bridge radio, issuing warning messages and twice sounding the internationally recognized danger signal of five short blasts with the ships whistle, as well as deploying a flare to determine the Iranian vessels intentions, McConnaughey said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The Iranian vessel came within 1,100 yards of the Mahan during the incident, the lieutenant said. The vessel later turned and sailed away.

Iranian authorities did not immediately report the incident on Wednesday.

The U.S. and Iran routinely have tense encounters in the Persian Gulf and the nearby Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes. Iran views the American presence as a provocation and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard shadows U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf, occasionally firing missiles or rockets nearby.

Since the nuclear deal with world powers, the hard-line Revolutionary Guard has stepped up its encounters with the Americans.

The Navy recorded 35 instances of what it describes as unsafe and/or unprofessional interactions with Iranians forces in 2016, compared to 23 in 2015. With Mondays event, there have been seven so far in 2017, McConnaughey said.

Of the incidents last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing 10 U.S. sailors and holding them overnight.

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US fires warning flare toward Iranian ship in Persian Gulf - New York Post