Iran to deploy 'secret weapons' in case of US 'stupidity'

Iran warned it could use its “secret weapons” to sink US warships sent to the Gulf region, a senior Iranian military official was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency Mizan on Saturday.

General Morteza Qorbani, an adviser to Iran’s military command, told Mizan the Islamic Republic would take swift action in countering any potential US aggression.

“America.. is sending two warships to the region. If they commit the slightest stupidity, we will send these ships to the bottom of the sea along with their crew and planes using two missiles or two new secret weapons,” the general said.

The comments came after the US announced on Friday that it will deploy hundreds more troops to the Middle East, after a "campaign" of alleged Iranian attacks in the Gulf region.

President Donald Trump told reporters that the 1,500 new troops for the region would have a "mostly protective" role but follows a huge military build-up in the region following alleged attacks on shipping which have been linked to Iran.

"We want to have protection in the Middle East," Trump told reporters as he prepared to set off on a trip to Japan.

"We're going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective. It'll be about 1,500 people."

In early May, the US sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Middle East in a show of force against Iran, alleging that Tehran was planning attacks in the region.

The new troops will be include reconnaissance aircraft and fighter jets personnel and engineers. Six hundred of the personnel will also man Patriot missile defence battalion that have been widely deployed across the region.

The Pentagon says the move comes after multiple threatening actions and by Iranian forces, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and "proxy" forces.

The first threat came at the start of May, according to Rear Admiral Michael Gilday, director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

The US caught the IRGC attempting to covertly deploy "modified dhows capable of launching cruise missiles", he said, referring to small traditional boats.

"We view this as a campaign," Gilday told reporters.

The moves "are all part of a dangerous and escalatory strategy by Iran to threaten global trade and to destabilise the region”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to the US decision to deploy troops to the Middle East would be a "threat to international peace," state media reported on Saturday.

"Increased US presence in our region is very dangerous and a threat to international peace and security and must be confronted," Zarif told the official IRNA news agency before heading home from a visit to Pakistan.

"Americans make such claims to justify their hostile policies and to create tension in the Persian Gulf," Zarif said.

The United States this month ended the last exemptions it had granted from sweeping unilateral sanctions it reimposed after abandoning a landmark 2015 nuclear between major powers and Iran in May last year.

The move dealt a heavy new blow to Iran's already reeling economy as even vocal critics of the renewed sanctions, like Turkey, announced they had stopped buying Iranian oil.

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