Iran denies it fired rockets near United States warships in Gulf

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has dismissed United States accusations of a rocket test near American warships in the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said Wednesday that Guard vessels fired several unguided rockets about 1,370 meters (1,500 yards) from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and other Western warships and commercial traffic last Saturday.

A USA military official claimed that while the Iranians did not appear to be targeting any specific ships with the exercise, their actions were “unnecessarily provocative and unsafe”.

“Publishing such lies in the current situation is more a psychological operation”.

The incident touched off a new round of condemnations in the USA political establishment, particularly among Republicans.

“Security and peace in the strategic Persian Gulf region is among Iran’s serious strategies, and the IRGC keeps holding its drills in due time based on its organizational schedule in a bid to improve the required preparations in this field”, he added.

“The rockets were not fired at the Truman and other ships, only near them”, the network said. Iran also recently aired footage on state television of an underground missile base. An global deal in July over Iran’s nuclear programme saw tensions thaw but the USA remains concerned about Iran’s missile programme.

A senior US official told the AP on Wednesday that America is considering designating a number of additional targets for sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Hardliners in Iran have carried out a wave of arrests of activists they accuse of promoting Western “infiltration”, while the United States passed a law restricting visa-free travel rights for people who have visited Iran or hold dual Iranian nationality, a measure Iran has called a breach of the deal. But hardliners in Tehran as well as Republican lawmakers have denounced the agreement.

The U.S. naval presence is not just aircraft carriers and destroyers, which were supposedly threatened by this “provocative” test. U.S. nuclear armed submarines are often present in the Sea of Oman, also off the coast of Iran.

Provocations like this will further concerns some members of Congress have about the landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear program, especially the sanction relief part of the agreement.

Although Iran s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei explicitly endorsed the nuclear accord in October he warned that new sanctions, under any pretext, would constitute a violation.

Rouhani further criticized the Treasury plans, stating that Iran’s domestic defense had never been within the remit of the nuclear talks.