Iran denies it fired rockets near U.S. warship in Gulf

Tehran has denied the information about the alleged launch of several missiles by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the official website of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) said.

Iran s Revolutionary Guards denied that its naval forces had been involved in a December 26 incident in which the U.S. said rockets came close to the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

But General Ramezan Sharif, spokesman for the IRGC, said that the USA was blatantly lying about the incident and added, “Publishing such lies in the current situation is more a psychological operation”.

According to the USA, the Iranian ships were conducting a live-fire exercise within about 1400 kilometers from the Harry Truman aircraft carrier.

The dispute comes after Iran and six world powers, including the US, reached a historic deal in July that will remove certain US, EU, and United Nations sanctions on Tehran in exchange for Iran accepting curbs on its nuclear program.

The unguided rockets, even assuming they hit the Truman, would not be enough to sink the vessel, but a strike could have damaged it. Rather than rockets, the real danger to US vessels in the region would be from sea mines, which are responsible for damaging or sinking the majority of USA vessels lost since World War II.

On Wednesday, US military spokesman Kyle Raines claimed that rockets had been fired about 1,370m (1,500 yards) away from two US vessels and a French frigate, in a “highly provocative” act. Iran rejected the allegations, saying the sanctions only applied to missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and that their missiles had no such capability.

The nuclear deal was heralded by moderates, such as Iran s President Hassan Rouhani, who staked his reputation on the negotiations.

Supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that new sanctions would constitute a violation of the agreement.

However, the sanctions come in response to Iran’s ballistic missile testing in October and November, which caused both Congressional Republicans and Democrats to call for action.

On Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said Iran would “respond to any interventionist measure by the United States against its defense”, which has “no connection” to the nuclear deal. “The regime in Washington is trying to reimpose these sanctions by other means”.