TEHRAN – Commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps(IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami has described the U.S. dispatch of anaircraft carrier to the Middle East as a “psychological war”.

“The U.S. is seeking by this step to intimidate the people and somemilitary officials of the occurrence of war,” the semi-official Fars newsagency quoted Salami as saying at a parliamentary session on Sunday.

“The American war against Iran is not possible, because Washington doesnot have the ability and the courage to wage war against it,” he said.

The Iranian commander ruled out the possibility of a U.S. militaryaction to what he called “the strength of our armed forces on the one hand,and the vulnerabilities of the U.S. aircraft carriers on the other.”

On Wednesday, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on four Iranian metalsectors in the latest component of President Donald Trump administration’s”maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran after sending a carrier strike groupand a bomber task force to the region in response to unspecified threatsfrom Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Iran would resumehigh-level enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels if Tehran’sinterests in the nuclear deal are not protected within 60 days.

The Trump administration has been working to scuttle the 2015 deal worldpowers, including the U.S., struck with Iran, including re-imposing oilsanctions Washington lifted as part of the deal after Trump unilaterallywithdrew in May 2018. -AA/APP