TEHRAN - Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami said on Sunday that vulnerability of U.S. aircraft carriers would prevent Washington from starting a war against Iran.

“The U.S.-Iran war is not possible, because the U.S. does not have the power and will never dare to start a military war with Iran.” 
“The U.S.-Iran war is not possible, because the U.S. does not have the power and will never dare to start a military war with Iran,” MP Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar quoted General Salami as saying in a closed session of parliament. 

“Dispatching the U.S. aircraft carrier to the regional waters is just a psychological warfare and the U.S. seeks to intimidate people and certain officials of war,” Salami added, according Pourmokhtar. 

U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has approved the U.S. will deploy additional Patriot missiles to the Middle East, according to CNN.

The USS Arlington, which transports marines, amphibious vehicles, and rotary aircraft, as well as the Patriot missiles, will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which passed through Egypt’s Suez Canal on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported.

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed on May 5 that the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. Central Command region was a response to what he called “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” by Iran.

Iranian officials and analysts have said the dispatch of carriers to the region are just a “psychological warfare” against Iran.
 
Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh has said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy against Iran is “economically driven”. 

In an interview with ISNA published on Saturday, Falahatpisheh said, “Trump had imagined he could bring Iran to the negotiating table through sanction.” 

Trump is aware of Iran’s power and is just seeking to make changes to the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, he said.

NA/PA