Official threatens U.S. Navy after tweet

TEHRAN — The leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned Thursday he ordered his forces to potentially target the U.S. Navy after President Trump’s tweet a day earlier threatening to sink Iranian vessels.

Iran separately summoned the Swiss ambassador, who looks out for U.S. interests in the country, to complain about Trump’s threat coming amid months of escalating attacks between the two countries.

While the coronavirus pandemic temporarily paused those tensions, Iran has since begun pushing back against the Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy both militarily and diplomatically. The Guard also launched Iran’s first military satellite Wednesday, unveiling a previously secret space program.

Speaking to state television Thursday, Guard Gen. Hossein Salami warned his forces “will answer any action by a decisive, effective and quick counteraction.”

“We have ordered our naval units at sea that if any warships or military units from the naval force of America’s terrorist army wants to jeopardize our commercial vessels or our combat vessels, they must target those (American) warships or naval units,” Salami said.

The latest dispute comes after the U.S. Navy said last week that 11 Guard naval gunboats had carried out “dangerous and harassing approaches” to American Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. said they used nonlethal means to warn off the boats, while Iran accused the U.S. of sparking the incident.