Iran warns U.S. Navy to keep out of Persian Gulf

A senior Iranian military official threatened on Tuesday to take action if the U.S. Navy doesn’t keep its aircraft carriers out of the Persian Gulf, according to a report by Reuters.

The warning came from Iranian army chief Ataollah Salehi in a statement to the IRNA network, a government-owned Iranian news agency. While neither Salehi or the U.S. government have said what aircraft carrier’s supposed trespass prompted the warning, Salehi warned to the agency that Iran’s military would take unspecified action if a U.S. aircraft carrier was found in the waters of the Persian Gulf again.

“Iran will not repeat its warning … the enemy’s carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf,” Salehi reportedly told the IRNA, as reported by Reuters.

“I advise, recommend and warn them (the Americans) over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once,” Salehi said.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been rapidly growing over the past month in light of recent sanctions from the U.S. and EU, which have taken a significant toll on Iran’s economy. Fears of sanctions targeting the nation’s oil sector have driven the currency down 40 percent against the dollar in the past month alone.

The regime warned last week that if the international community pursued sanctions of the nation’s oil industry, the nation would shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow corridor which upwards of one-third of the world’s oil is exported through.

Source: Reuters

[Image credit: AP/U.S. Navy]