Iranian Ambassador to London Hamid Baeidinejad has warned about the prospect of war in the Middle East and advised the U.S. not to test Iran’s determination.

“While we have renounced any escalation in the region, I would assure you that Iranian armed forces are fully ready for any eventuality in the region, so they should not try to test the determination of Iran to confront any escalation in the region,” he said in an interview with Sky News aired on Wednesday.

He called the U.S. threats of war with Iran “theatrical maneuvers”.

“Our analysis is they, [or] at least President Trump, doesn’t want to engage in military confrontation with Iran because of how costly it will be for the U.S. and for the region,” he said.

According to Al Jazeera, the U.S. has approved the deployment of a Patriot missile defense battery and another warship to the Middle East amid increasing tensions with Iran.

“The Acting Secretary of Defense has approved the movement of USS Arlington (LPD-24) and a Patriot battery to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) as part of the command’s original request for forces from earlier this week,” a Pentagon statement said.

Commenting on incidents for several vessels in the Sea of Oman on Sunday, Baeidinejad said, “It is very suspicious to us and we hope an international fact finding mission could really find the reasons for these sabotages which are really suspicious to us.”

The United Arab Emirates confirmed on Sunday that four commercial vessels had been targeted by what it called acts of sabotage off Fujairah.

Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday urging a clarification on the issue.

‘Europe must do more to stand up to Trump’s administration’

Baeidinejad also said that Europe must do more to stand up to the Trump administration to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“Iran has been implementing all its obligations, but the other sides have not been implementing their obligations and that’s a situation that cannot continue in this manner. So Iran wanted to give a very important signal that things should be rectified and should be redressed,” he said.

On May 8, Iran officially announced that it stops selling stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water for 60 days. However, Iran warned if a conclusion is not reached in this time period, it will take other measures step by step and will accelerate its uranium enrichment activities.

Under the JCPOA, Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium is capped at 300kg and heavy water reserve at 130 tons.

Under the JCPOA, endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, Iran was tasked to put limits on its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of economic and financial sanctions. However, since President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA, the European countries cut banking ties with Iran, stopped purchasing Iranian oil, annulled agreements, and their companies left Iran one after another.

NA