Iran Lashes Out at US after Submarine Deployment

The Iranian Foreign Ministry accused the United States of “warmongering” after the US Navy announced it was deploying a guided missile submarine in the Middle East, amid heightened tensions in the region.   

In a series of tweets on April 10, ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani also accused Washington of “propagating instability and conflict in the West Asia region.” 

The deployment was a sign of the United States’ “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 Beijing-brokered deal to end years of hostility between Tehran and Riyadh. 

A Saudi delegation arrived in Tehran over the weekend to discuss reopening the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s embassy following a meeting in Beijing earlier in the week between the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers. 

As Saudi officials met with their counterparts in Tehran, the US Navy announced that the nuclear-powered submarine USS Florida began transiting the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea on April 7. 

The vessel, capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles, was being deployed in support of the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet to “ensure regional maritime security and stability,” said Commander Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the US Naval Forces Central Command.

Hawkins declined to provide further details on the mission or its timing. The US Navy rarely publicizes movements of its nuclear submarine fleet.

In recent weeks, US military commanders have warned that Iran’s missile and drone capabilities as well as advances in its nuclear program pose serious threats to regional security. The US military blamed Iran-backed militias for a deadly attack on one of its facilities in northeast Syria last month.

Israeli jets hit Syrian military targets on April 9 in response to rockets launched toward the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, the Israeli military said, following cross-border exchanges of fire during the past week. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in war-ravaged Syria in recent years targeting Iranian forces, Syrian government positions and allied militias.

In the Gaza Strip on April 7, Israel said it hit sites belonging to the Iran-allied Hamas movement, and retaliated against the firing of a barrage of rockets from southern Lebanon in an attack claimed by the Iran-supported Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.