Iran has warned U.S. forces for the third time in 72 hours to cease any further advance into the Persian Gulf, predicting catastrophic outcomes if they do not retreat.
An Iranian cleric first cautioned the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group now gathering in the region could be destroyed with ease.
“Their billion [-dollar] fleet can be destroyed with one missile,” Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai Nejad was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency after Friday prayers in Isfahan, according to Reuters.
This was followed by a second warning on Saturday when a top commander in Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the United States “wouldn’t dare to launch military action against us” and cautioned of a fiery response if that happened.
Yadollah Javani, the IRGC’s deputy head for political affairs, spoke after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened a “swift and decisive” response to any attack by Iran.
On Sunday a third caution was issued by Iran, when a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the U.S. military presence in the Gulf used to be a serious threat but now represents a target, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported. – READ MORE