Iran said Wednesday that it had fired cruise missiles in the direction of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, hours after Tehran’s military dismissed any talk of an agreement to end the war with the US.
The semiofficial Fars News Agency, which has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that the missile attack had “forc[ed] the American naval fleet to change position.”
There was no immediate response from US Central Command (CENTCOM), which has taken to social media in the past to refute Iranian claims to have struck the Lincoln and other US assets.
The carrier has been based in the Arabian Sea in support of Operation Epic Fury, which will mark the conclusion of its fourth week Friday.
In the Oval Office Tuesday, President Trump told reporters that Iran had “shot 100 missiles at one of our aircraft carriers, one of the biggest ships in the world, actually.
“Out of 101 missiles, every single one of them was knocked down.”
The missile launches followed a top spokesman for Iran’s military vowing that Tehran will “never come to terms” with Washington after the US transmitted a 15-point peace plan via Pakistani intermediaries.
“Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever,” Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari said in a video shared by Fars.
“The strategic power you used to talk about has turned into a strategic failure,” he added. “The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could. Don’t dress up your defeat as an agreement. Your era of empty promises has come to an end.”
The 15 demands of Iran include, according to the Wall Street Journal, dismantling nuclear facilities and capabilities as well as forgoing the pursuit of atomic weapons; handing over all enriched uranium to international authorities; limiting its missile program to self-defense uses; keeping the Strait of Hormuz open; and cutting off funding for terrorist proxies.
In return, Iran has issued demands — including the lifting of all sanctions and the closure of US bases in the Persian Gulf — which a US official called “ridiculous and unrealistic,” according to the Journal.
There has been no sign that the peace discussions have even slowed the pace of military action.
The Israeli military said Wednesday afternoon that it had carried out “several waves of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in Tehran” and promised “further details to follow.”
The previous day, the Israel Defense Forces said, they had targeted military production sites in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, including facilities for building submarines and support systems for Iran’s navy.
In a separate statement, Israel’s defense ministry said the Jewish state had carried out more than 15,000 strikes against Iran since the beginning of combat operations Feb. 28 — more than four times the number fired during the 12-day war with the Islamic Republic this past June.
