Iran test fires ‘cruise missile’ amid tensions with US
Iran has test fired a cruise missile during war games involving 100 vessels off its southern coast, state media has reported.
It is said to have happened near the Strait of Hormuz – a major oil shipping route at the mouth of the Persian Gulf – amid heightened tensions with the US.
About a third of all the oil traded by sea passes through the strait.
State news agency IRNA said a “Ghadir-class Iranian navy submarine successfully launched a cruise missile” on the third day of exercises.
Two more submarines have the same capability, it added.
Warships, helicopters and surveillance planes have also taken part in the drill, which ends later on Sunday.
Surface-to-surface missiles were launched on Saturday.
Iran has previously threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation against any hostile moves by the US, such as the halting of Iranian oil exports via sanctions.
Last August, Washington said Iran had test-fired a short-range anti-ship missile in the strait.
When the USS John C Stennis entered the Gulf in December, it ended a long absence of American aircraft carriers in the area.
Tensions between Iran and the US were heightened when President Donald Trump withdrew his country from an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme last May.
The US and European countries have been concerned by an expansion of Iran’s missile programme.
But Tehran says it is primarily defensive and provides it with a deterrent.
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