United States accuses Iran of conducting missile test near warships

Iranian military ships have not held any manoeuvers in the area in recent weeks and so could not have fired the rockets, General Ramezan Sharif, a spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, said Thursday.

The firing came just 23 minutes after Iranian authorities gave naval traffic in the area notice, said Navy Commander Kyle Raines, spokesman for US Central Command, according to Reuters.

Iran has denied that its Revolutionary Guards launched rockets near a US aircraft-carrier and other warships as they were entering the Persian Gulf on December 26. The Iranian government has agreed to scale back its nuclear programme so it no longer has the capability to produce nuclear weapons.

This incident takes place within a significant broader U.S.- Iranian context because the much-discussed nuclear deal between the two countries took a major step forward recently.

The Navy Times quoted Anthony Cordesman, a national security expert with the Center for Strategic and worldwide studies, as saying that the continuation of these sorts of Iranian activities in the Persian Gulf would help to make sure that Iran is “at least as serious a threat” as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the coming year.

NBC News first reported news of the missile test. It seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship and later released it in May after earlier surrounding U.S.-flagged cargo ship transiting the strait.

A Pentagon official told CNN on Wednesday that a USA aircraft carrier came within about 1,500 yards of an Iranian rocket while operating in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Firing weapons so close to passing coalition ships and commercial traffic within an internationally recognised maritime traffic lane is unsafe, unprofessional and inconsistent with worldwide maritime law”, he said.

The Nimitz-class USA aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) at sea.

The nuclear deal was heralded by moderates such as Rouhani, who staked his reputation on the negotiations, but hardliners in Tehran said it damaged Iran’s national interests.

While the rockets weren’t fired in the direction of any ships, Raines said Iran’s “actions were highly provocative”. It is unclear how far the United Nations or United States will go to respond to the violations – though on Wednesday, the Treasury Department notified Capitol Hill of new pending sanctions against 11 individuals and entities accused of supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Tehran and six world powers including the United States clinched an agreement in July that would curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting economic sanctions.