Iran increases its naval fleet in the midst of a new escalation of tension with the United States

Iran announces the acquisition of a new warship in the midst of an escalation of tension with the United States. Last Thursday the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard presented a new aircraft carrier capable of transporting helicopters, unmanned aircraft and missile launchers.

This warship Shahid Roudaki, named after the murdered naval commander of the Guard, Abdollah Roudaki, is 150 metres long and 22 metres wide. It is equipped with three-dimensional radars, ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missiles.

The commander of the Guard's navy, Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri, suggested that his forces wanted to go beyond the waters of the Gulf and patrol deep waters.

However, the ship appears to be a response to the US Navy's patrols in the region by its Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet. US aircraft carriers regularly travel through Middle Eastern waters. Iran sees these missions, as well as Israel's growing presence in the region, as a threat.

The announcement of the acquisition of this new ship by Iran was made on the same day that the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, arrived in Israel. Pompeo's main objective was to discuss with the Israeli authorities the normalisation of relations with the Arab countries and Iran's risk for the region.

All this followed the signing of the Abraham Agreements whereby the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established diplomatic ties with the state of Israel, under the mediation of Donald Trump's US government. An establishment of relations with Israel which Sudan also subsequently joined. 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been singled out as responsible for several incidents in Gulf waters involving attacks on cargo vessels after the United States imposed economic and political sanctions on it for alleged violation of the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 limiting Iran's atomic programme, particularly in the field of armaments.