DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran moved a model aircraft carrier from the US to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, satellite images show, suggesting it will use the similar ship for war games shooting practice on a navigation channel in the Gulf vital to world oil exports
The restored Iranian model aircraft carrier, previously used as a simulated US target during an Iranian Naval War Games exercise from February 2015, is seen being towed by a tug near Bandar Abbas, Iran, July 25, 2020. Satellite image © 2020 Maxar Technologies / via REUTERS
The use of counterfeit American warships has become an occasional feature of the training of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and its naval forces, even in 2015, when Iranian missiles struck a model that resembles a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.
Tehran, which opposes the presence of the US and Western navies in the Gulf, frequently holds naval war games in the strategic strait, the conduit for approximately 30% of all crude and other petroleum liquids marketed by sea. .
One of the images taken on July 26 by US space technology firm Maxar Technologies showed an Iranian fast-attack ship moving toward the American carrier model on the strategic waterway. Another image showed aircraft models lined up on the cover of the fake aircraft carrier.
“We cannot talk about what Iran hopes to gain by building this model, or what tactical value they would expect to gain from using such a model in a training scenario or offensive exercise,” said Commander Rebecca Rebarich, the Fifth Fleet spokeswoman based on Bahrain of the United States Navy.
“We continue to trust in the ability of our naval forces to defend against any maritime threat.”
Tensions have risen between Iran and the United States since 2018, when United States President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with six powers and re-imposed sanctions that have dramatically reduced Tehran’s oil exports.
The Iranian Guard said in April that Tehran would destroy American warships if their security is threatened in the Gulf. Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to block Hormuz if Iran is unable to export oil or if its nuclear sites are attacked.
In recent years there have been periodic clashes between the Iranian Guard and the US military in the Gulf. US officials have said that closing the Strait would cross a “red line” and that the United States would take steps to reopen it.
Iran cannot legally unilaterally close the waterway because part of it is in Omani territorial waters. However, the ships they sail pass through Iranian waters, which are under the responsibility of the Iranian Guard naval force.
Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Dubai; Written by Parisa Hafezi, Edited by William Maclean
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