A spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has called US President Donald Trump a "big liar", accusing him of hiding the truth from Americans about Iran's nuclear program and the effectiveness of Iran's blockade of energy supplies from the Persian Gulf, Reuters reported.
Among his reasons for waging war against Iran, Trump cites the need to ensure that the country never develops nuclear weapons.
"The enemy knows that Iran does not seek nuclear weapons," said Hossein Mohebi. He said the US problem was not Tehran's nuclear program, but its scale and significance, things Washington wants to destroy.
He disputed US claims that Iran had lost most of its influence over the Strait of Hormuz, in part because the US military had been able to protect some of the tankers carrying oil from the Persian Gulf.
"The fact that the Americans might be able, at great expense, great difficulty and great risk, to secretly send a small vessel through the Strait of Hormuz under cover of night to take out, say, 100 or 200 barrels of oil, does not mean that the strait is open," Mohebbi stressed.