We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Up to 16 fake fighter jets are on the deck, though officials have so far failed to confirm its purpose. Five years ago, a similar mocked up aircraft carrier was used as a test target to help morale. It comes as the Revolutionary Guard has announced that it will execute a “spy” accused of leaking information to the United States and Israel.

A statement said: “Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, one of the spies for the CIA and the Mossad, has been sentenced to death.

“He shared information about the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani with our enemies.”

A statement confirmed he had been arrested in 2018 and was in jail at the time of Mr Soleimani’s death and had been charged with earlier offences,

The new “aircraft carrier” is in the dock at Bandar Abbas.

This is at the entrance to the Gulf on the Strait of Hormuz.

It is built to resemble a Nimitz-class US carrier, many of which patrol the nearby waters.

After the previous carrier was sunk, Iran agreed to the nuclear deal with the US, Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany.

The deal lifted sanctions on Tehran in return for the curtailment of their nuclear programme.

The US controversially pulled out two years ago.

Two reports by the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency confirm Iran has repeatedly breached the provisions of the previous deal.

The summary report reads: “The Agency notes with serious concern that, for over four months, Iran has denied access to the Agency, under Article 4.b.(i) and Article 5.c. of the Additional Protocol, to two locations and, for almost a year, has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify Agency questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities in Iran.”

The agency said Iran’s enriched uranium is above the stockpile limit.

DON’T MISS
Iran horror as US spy to be executed for ‘sharing information (LATEST)
Coronavirus map LIVE: UK daily deaths back in triple figures (LIVE)
World War 3 MAPPED: The SIX places where WW3 could break out in 2020 (ANALYSIS)

Iran has claimed it has never sought to build a nuclear weapon and its aims are peaceful.

The report continued: “This is adversely affecting the Agency’s ability to clarify and resolve the questions and thereby to provide credible assurance of the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities at these locations in Iran.”

Throughout 2019, Iran was involved in a diplomatic tussle with the West over harassment of shipping in the Gulf.

On July 4, British Marines helped seize an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar.

Adrian Darya-1 was suspected of breaking EU sanctions by transporting oil to Syria.

In response, Iran captured the British flagged Stena Impero and kept it at the Bandar Abbas port for two months.

Relations between the US and Iran were seriously damaged in January when Quds Force commander Mr Soleimani was killed by US drones in Iraq.

Tehran vowed “severe revenge” as a result of the killing.

Trump claimed the US took its actions to stop a war.

Source: Read Full Article