Iran... ok, now we have a problem.

[Undertoad]

The Times "How Britons were conned by Iranian gunboat trick" summarizes how Iran was able to do what they did. Their subtitle for the article is: "The speed and cunning shown by the Revolutionary Guards suggests that their action was premeditated."

It was a carefully planned ambush:

The speed and cunning shown by the Revolutionary Guards has raised suspicions that their action was premeditated. A senior military officer described it as “deliberate”.

It took only three minutes for the Iranians, moving at 40 knots, to move from their legitimate positions monitoring shipping in their waters to come alongside the British last Friday morning.

The sailors and marines from HMS Cornwall were in the Gulf, working under a United Nations mandate to protect Iraq from smuggling and threats to the oil industry, when an Indian-flagged vessel came under suspicion.

It was in shallow waters and the Cornwall was unable to go alongside without grounding. A boarding party jumped into two ribbed inflatable boats, or RIBs, and set out to investigate.

A helicopter hovered to observe the boarding but, after confirming that the Indian vessel was peaceful and friendly, returned to the ship. The Cornwall stayed in contact with the two launch boats via a communications link providing a GPS satellite position.

After the successful boarding of the innocent Indian vessel, the Britons began returning to their RIBs. At that moment one Iranian patrol vessel came alongside, adopting a friendly posture. As a second Iranian vessel arrived, the Revolutionary Guards turned aggressive.

The story goes on. Iran gave a set of coordinates for where the incident took place. Brits mapped it and pointed out that it was in Iraqi waters.

Iran then said "oh never mind, that first set was a mistake, here are the REAL coordinates," and sent a second set of coordinates which was in Iranian waters.

But by then the Brits had flown over the still-stationary Indian vessel, with a GPS unit; they released a picture of the result to show where it took place, in clearly Iraqi territory.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The Times "How Britons were conned by Iranian gunboat trick" summarizes how Iran was able to do what they did. Their subtitle for the article is: "The speed and cunning shown by the Revolutionary Guards suggests that their action was premeditated."

It was a carefully planned ambush:...

Same thing discussed from a strategic perspective in:
Options limited in Iran stand-off

It's not a major problem when observing from a strategic objective. But it could become major and problematic as defined here. Deja vue a silly spy plane incident when some wanted a boogey man and therefore war with China.