TEHRAN -- Iran’s Army said on Thursday that U.S. vessels are operating at a very long distance from its coastline because of the strength of the country’s naval forces, dismissing President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that Iran’s military has been weakened or destroyed.
Brigadier General Muhammad Akraminia, the Army spokesman, said Iranian naval forces remain deployed across the Sea of Oman, Arabian Sea and northern Indian Ocean, where they are maintaining control. 
“The U.S. vessels have not been and are not being allowed to approach our shores,” Akraminia said, adding that the distance at which American vessels are operating demonstrates Iran’s military strength. 
“If, as Trump claims, the Navy had been destroyed, the enemy would have approached the shores, but it does not dare to do so.”
His remarks came after an IRGC spokesman said on September 9 that U.S. warships had moved at least 400 kilometers from the Strait of Hormuz and that no U.S. warships were then inside the Persian Gulf. 
An Iranian parliamentary deputy speaker recently said targeting U.S. warships and facilities housing American commanders represented only “a fraction” of Iran’s capabilities.
Akraminia warned Washington against renewed aggression. “If they again make a miscalculation and launch new aggression, they will be targeted more decisively, extensively and forcefully than before and will be forced to sustain a heavy defeat,” he said.
He also rejected U.S. accounts of an alleged operation in early April to rescue an American pilot inside Iran, as well as the pilot’s interview about the episode aired on CBS News’ 60 Minutes. 
“As Western and American media have also announced, these pilots were asked to appear in front of the camera and make these statements,” he said, adding that the United States seeks to create a myth of invincibility as portrayed in Hollywood films.
The comments follow an assessment by the Pentagon inspector general highlighting the impact of the war on the U.S. military presence in West Asia, affirming that Iranian strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases and depleted stocks of key munitions. 
The assessment said the attacks disrupted Washington’s regional military posture, forcing the relocation of personnel, assets and storage facilities and affecting naval and medical logistics. 
Brigadier General Muhammad Karami, commander of the IRGC Ground Force, warned on Thursday during a visit to the Persian Gulf islands that any act of aggression by the enemy will be met with a strong response. 
“Backed by divine willpower and the support of the steadfast, vigilant, and present-on-the-scene nation, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond decisively to any miscalculation by the enemy,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to deploy ground forces to seize Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub. 
Iranian officials and commanders have said the armed forces are fully ready across all national territory, including the strategic island, to counter any attack and inflict heavy casualties on American troops.