Iran Blasts U.S. Deployment of Sub to West Asia
TEHRAN – Iran on Monday lashed out at the U.S. after its rare move to disclose the deployment of a guided missile submarine in the Middle East over the weekend, amid heightened tensions and Israeli violence in the region.
In a series of tweets that marked the Islamic Republic’s first official reaction to the USS Florida’s presence, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani hit out at the U.S. for “warmongering and propagating instability and conflict in the West Asia region.”
The deployment is a sign of Washington’s “struggle to gloss over its decline in the world, as new regional equations are likely to shape a new order and eliminate the need for military forces from outside the region,” Kanaani said, in an apparent reference to last month’s China-brokered deal that ended a seven-year rupture in Saudi-Iranian relations.
A Saudi delegation arrived in Tehran over the weekend to discuss reopening the kingdom’s embassy following a meeting in Beijing on Thursday between the foreign ministers of both countries.
As Saudi officials met with their counterparts in Tehran, the Florida — capable of carrying as many as 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles — began transiting the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea on Friday,
according to the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, which is based in nearby Bahrain.
The nuclear-powered submarine is being deployed in support of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, also based in Bahrain, to “ensure regional maritime security and stability,” Commander Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, claimed on Saturday.
Hawkins declined to provide further details on the mission or its timing, or to specify whether the submarine was headed to the Persian Gulf. It’s extremely rare for the U.S. military to publicize movements of its nuclear submarine fleet.
The U.S. submarine’s arrival coincided with the firing of six rockets from Syria toward the Zionist-held Golan Heights.
Iran’s envoy to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, earlier warned that the Islamic Republic will take “decisive measures” to protect its forces and interests in Syria against any threats posed by the United States or others.