US military assets in the Gulf are now a target as opposed to a threat, Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Aerospace Division, told the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency. “An aircraft carrier that has at least 40 to 50 planes on it and 6,000 forces gathered within it was a serious threat for us in the past, but now it is a target…[that offers] opportunities,” the commander was quoted as saying. He added that if Washington initiates a military confrontation, “we will hit them in the head.” The US recently sent a fleet of B-52 Bombers and Patriot anti-ballistic-missile defense batteries to the region amid reports Tehran was plotting to target American interests. Indeed, Gulf officials reported Monday that four commercial vessels were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, although they did not directly accuse Tehran of being responsible for the attacks. Meanwhile, Major General Hossein Salami, the newly-appointed chief of the IRGC—which the Trump Administration recently designated a foreign terrorist organization—told parliament on Sunday that the United States had started a “psychological war” against Tehran. It comes as Israeli security cabinet member Yuval Steinitz warned that if current US-Iran tensions escalate, the Islamic Republic could lash out at the Jewish state through proxies such as Lebanon-based Hizbullah or Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
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