Iran reveals its largest warship in Gulf missile exercise
Iran’s navy began a short-range missile drill in the Gulf of Oman yesterday and inaugurated its largest military vessel, state TV reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear programme and a US pressure campaign against the country.
The two-day missile drill was held in the Gulf’s south-eastern waters and two new Iranian-made warships joined the exercise.
They were the missile-launcher Zereh, or “armour”, and the country’s largest military ship the Makran, a logistics vessel that was named after a coastal region in southern Iran.
In 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, in which Tehran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Mr Trump cited Iran’s ballistic missile programme among other issues in withdrawing from the accord.
When the US then increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development and a series of escalating incidents pushed the two countries to the brink of war at the beginning of this year.
In recent weeks, Iran increased its military drills. On Saturday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held a naval parade in the Arabian Gulf, and a week earlier Iran carried out a drone manoeuvre across half of the country.
Iran on occasion announces military achievements that cannot be independently verified. The country began a military self-sufficiency programme in 1992 under which Tehran says it produces equipment ranging from mortars to fighter jets.
State television said the 121,000-tonne Makran is Iran’s largest military ship at 228 metres long, 42 metres wide and 21.5 metres tall. The vessel, which supports combat ships in the fleet, can travel for nearly three years without docking and carries information collection and processing gear, according to the IRGC.
Video footage released by the military showed helicopters carrying commandos to the Makran as part of the missile exercise.
Last week, Iran seized a South Korean oil tanker and its crew in the Gulf and continues to hold the vessel at an Iranian port.
Tehran is apparently trying to increase its leverage over Seoul before negotiations over billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks owing to US sanctions against Iran.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of having secret ties with Al Qaeda and imposed new sanctions on several senior Iranian officials. Iran denied the accusation.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani yesterday said in a televised speech during a Cabinet meeting that US sanctions would fail.
“We are witnessing the failure of a policy, the maximum pressure campaign, economic terrorism,” he said.