TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's defense minister says his country's naval forces will warn or confront any foreign ship entering its territorial waters after an incident this week involving a U.S. warship.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Gen. Hosein Dehghan on Thursday as saying that "if any foreign vessel enters our waters, we warn them, and if it's an invasion, we confront."

Dehghan's comments came after four Iranian small boats sailed near the guided missile destroyer USS Nitze on Wednesday. The U.S. Navy described the incident as "unsafe and unprofessional" and said it occurred in international waters in the narrow Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Navy video of the incident obtained by The Associated Press shows American sailors on the Nitze firing flares and sounding the warship's horn as the Iranian boats approached.

By AP