Article Posted on : - Jan 03, 2012

US Navy's aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis.

TEHRAN (AFP): A US aircraft carrier currently deployed in the Middle East should "not return" to its base in the Gulf, the head of Iran's armed forces declared Tuesday, adding ominously there would be no repeat warning.

"We advise and insist that this warship not return to its former base in the Persian Gulf," Brigadier General Ataollah Salehi told reporters, according to the armed forces website.

"We don't have the intention of repeating our warning, and we warn only once," he was quoted as saying.

The warning came just one day after Iran's navy completed 10 days of manoeuvres at the entrance to the Gulf with the test-firing of three missiles designed to sink warships.

The aircraft carrier Salehi was referring to was the USS John C Stennis, one of the US Navy's biggest vessels.

The US vessel last week passed through the Strait heading east across the Gulf of Oman and through a zone where the Iranian navy was holding its manoeuvres.

The US Defence Department said the passage was "routine."

The United States keeps at least one aircraft carrier in or near the Gulf at all times, on rotations of weeks or months. It maintains the base of its Fifth Fleet in the Gulf state of Bahrain.