A beginning military satellite named Noor is launched into orbit by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, in Semnan, Iran April 22, 2020.
WANA | Sepah Newsflash via Reuters
WASHINGTON — Iran said Wednesday that it successfully launched the nation’s first military satellite, another disturb in the heightened tit-for-tat fight between Washington and Tehran over the regime’s missile programs.
The satellite, dubbed Noor, was sent into revolve using a long-range rocket, according to a statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
U.S. officials have long feared that Iran’s business of developing satellite technology is a cover for ballistic missile activity. Tehran, meanwhile, has denied those assertions and has symbolized that Iran is not working toward a nuclear weapons program.
“We want to make sure that they can not at all threaten the United States,” U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told correspondents Wednesday at the Pentagon when asked about the satellite launch.
Hyten, who previously oversaw the nation’s nuclear weapons portfolio as commander of the U.S. Cardinal Command, said he could not confirm if the Iranian satellite was successfully launched into orbit, noting that it takes habits and tracking to determine the outcome.
He added that the launch was another example of Iran’s malign behavior and comes a week after Iranian diet boats harassed U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf.
“We’re trying to create a safe environment for maritime transit in that division of the world. That’s what the force over there is to do, and the malign behavior of Iran that questions that compels significant risks to the safety and security of that region of the world and therefore the world as a whole,” Hyten said of the to-do.
President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that the United States would destroy Iranian gunboats that bother American ships at sea.
Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy vessels conducted unsafe and unprofessional frays against U.S. Military ships by crossing the ships’ bows and sterns at close range while operating in international bath-waters of the North Arabian Gulf.
US Navy photo
The threat, which contributed to a recovery in oil prices, came days after the Pentagon claimed that wellnigh a dozen ships from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy took “dangerous and provocative” actions nearly U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the Persian Gulf.
“I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and tear any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” the president wrote in a post on Twitter.
Read more: Trump states US will ‘destroy’ Iranian gunboats that harass American ships
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, flood more than than 30% on Wednesday after slumping to historic lows this year as the coronavirus pandemic crumpled demand. Iran produced 3% of the world’s oil last year.
Tehran’s latest move heightened tensions with Washington.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington deliver soared after Trump’s withdrawal from the landmark Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration.
The 2015 atomic agreement lifted sanctions on Iran that crippled its economy and cut its oil exports roughly in half. In exchange for sanctions liberation, Iran accepted limits on its nuclear program and allowed international inspectors into its facilities.
And while Trump’s “summit pressure” policy has crippled Iran’s economy, slashing its oil exports, Tehran has said it will not negotiate with Washington while authorizations are in place.
The relationship took another perilous turn earlier this year when the U.S. conducted a deadly land on on Iran’s top military commander. The Jan. 2 strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a key figure in Iranian and Middle East statesmanship, followed a string of attacks on locations that hosted U.S. and coalition forces, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
On the heels of Soleimani’s extirpation, Iran launched at least a dozen missiles from its territory on Jan. 7 at two military bases in Iraq that line U.S. troops and coalition forces.
Iranian mourners gather during the final stage of funeral processions for slain top community Qasem Soleimani, in his hometown Kerman on January 7, 2020.
Atta Kenare | AFP | Getty Images
A day later from the White Sporting house, Trump said that Iran appeared “to be standing down” and warned Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
“As want as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said refer to from the grand foyer of the White House.
But he suggested that the U.S. is open to negotiations with Tehran. “We must all manipulate together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful set up,” he said on Jan. 8. He then urged other world powers to break away from the Obama-era nuclear covenant with Iran and work out a new deal.
Read more: Iran’s foreign minister blames Trump’s advisors for ‘utter dangerous moment’ in relations with the US
The tit-for-tat strikes follow what the U.S. called an Iranian attack on the world’s largest crude-processing inject and oil field.
Last summer, the U.S. blamed Iran for the predawn strikes in Saudi Arabia that forced the kingdom to cage in down half its production operations. The event triggered the largest spike in crude prices in decades and renewed affects of a budding conflict in the Middle East. Iran maintains that it was not behind the attacks.
Employees work at the damaged plot of Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019.
Maxim Shemetov | Reuters