Reported standoff comes as Tehran warns of war if US or Saudis confront ‘aid ship’ headed for Yemen.

An Iranian warship nearly fired on a vessel entering Iran’s territorial waters in the Gulf of Aden before the boat changed course and headed in a different direction, an Iranian news agency reported Wednesday.

The tense exchange came as Tehran and Saudi Arabia rattled sabers over an Iranian aid ship heading for battle-torn Yemen.          

After the Iranian navy vessel warned it would target the speedboat in seconds, the boat changed course and returned to the coast.

“If the terrorists ignored our warning, they would be killed with the first bullets of Alborz,” Commodore Hassan Maqsoudlou, the captain of Alborz destroyer, was quoted by FARS as saying.

The incident took place as a senior Iranian military official warned the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemeni rebels that blocking an Iranian aid ship bound for Yemen would spark a fire.

Iran says the ship, which departed Monday, is carrying food, medicine, tents and blankets, as well as reporters, rescue workers and peace activists. It says the ship is expected to arrive at Yemen’s port city of Hodeida next week.

Iran’s navy said Tuesday it will protect the ship, and on Wednesday Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said Iran would not permit any country involved in the Yemen war to inspect its cargo.

Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier-General Massoud Jazzayeri warned Tuesday that any attack on “the Iranian Red Crescent aid ship will spark war in the region. And this fire may not be put out or brought under control.”

“The US and Saudi Arabia should know that Iran’s self-restraint has a limit,” he told the Arabic-language TV Alalam, according to Fars.

Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, a military spokesman, said Tuesday that no ship would be permitted to reach Yemen unless there was prior coordination with the coalition, and that if Iran wants to deliver humanitarian aid it should do so through the United Nations.

In Washington, US Army Col. Steve Warren said the American military is monitoring the cargo ship and warned Iran against “planning some sort of stunt.” He said the Iranian naval escort is unnecessary and that Iran should send the ship to Djibouti, where humanitarian efforts for Yemen are being coordinated.

The US, which supports the coalition, and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of arming the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis. Iran supports the rebels, but both Tehran and the Houthis deny it has provided weapons to them.

The Fars report claimed that American and French “reconnaissance planes, helicopters and warships” approached a fleet of Iranian ships on an anti-piracy campaign in Gulf of Aden the Saturday “in a provocative move,” sailing and flying within five miles from the Iranian fleet of warships.

The vessels and aircraft then “apologized and rapidly changed direction” after received a warning from the destroyer, the report said. It cited a similar incident on May 4.

None of the incidents was reported in mainstream Western media outlets, carried only by Russian news agencies echoing the reports by FARS.