On Tuesday, the Iranian military fired a missile from a helicopter at an American aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz, a forgery that revolutionary guards of the Iranian paraarmy had towed to the strategic waterway as a component of war games and army training illustrating the risk of clashes between Tehran and Washington.
The images transmitted by Iranian state television showed reproduction of the impact sent through the projectile as a component of an Iranian training called “Great Prophet 14”. Iranian commandos then temporarily descended from the helicopter on the fake Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, which resembles a shipment navigating the U.S. Navy. In the Persian Gulf, while other Iranian military shipments turned the shipment, probably a barge, raising white waves in its awakening.
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Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. In Bahrain, he said in a statement that the army was aware of Iranian army training that it was referring to attacking a shipping style similar to a desk carrier.
“This operation did not disrupt coalition operations in the region or have any effect on the relaxed movement of the industry in the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding waters,” he said.
However, Al Udeid army bases and Al Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates, home to U.S. troops and aircraft, were put on high alert when Iran sent several missiles south of the Persian Gulf as a component of army exercises.
“The protection and resistance of our military and coalition partners is a very sensible priority,” said Navy Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for Central Command, the unit of the Department of Defense that oversees the Middle East. “The United States condemns these irresponsible missile launches near a congested sea route.”
In a 2015 training session, the Iranian military sank a reproduction of the U.S. aircraft carrier.
Approximately 20% of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, the access point to the Persian Gulf. On Wednesday, Iran also claimed to have introduced more missiles from underground camouflaged positions as a component of ongoing military exercises. And state media published a graphic photographing the symbol of a coffin-shaped American aircraft carrier, with a legend quoting the ideal leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promising revenge for an American drone strike that killed a senior Iranian general.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have risen dramatically since 2018, when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with six global powers and re-imposed sanctions that limited Tehran’s oil exports and crippled its economy. Last summer, Washington blamed Tehran for a series of mysterious incidents against oil tankers in the region, and the two countries gave the impression of being on the brink of war in January after the U.S. drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq.
While the coronavirus pandemic has distracted both countries for months, there have been symptoms of a renewed prospect of the United States pushing for a UN arms embargo on Tehran. Expires in October.
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Last week, Iran reacted an angryly after an American F-15 fighter jet carried out what the Pentagon called a “standard visual inspection” of an Iranian commercial aircraft while flying over Syria. Iranian state media alleged that the U.S. war aircraft had performed “dangerous” maneuvers near an Iranian passenger plane and released videos showing shaking and injured passengers. The Pentagon said it believed the aircraft had moved away from an established advertising air corridor.
In recent weeks, there have also been a series of unexplained fires and explosions in Iran at key military, commercial and security sites, as well as at Iran’s main nuclear facility in Natanz. In some cases, the government has blamed for human injury or error, however, the number of incidents and their location have also led to the hypothesis that sabotage through an outdoor force, Israel, for example, or a dissenting organization may be just one factor.
“We have a long-term policy on many administrations to allow Iran to have nuclear capabilities,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said this month, adding to the conjecture. “We’re taking steps that are more important than saying.”
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Contributor: Tom Vanden Brook