DUBAI/WASHINGTON — Iran’s senior cleric on Friday warned that a US Navy fleet could be “destroyed with one missile”, as a US aircraft carrier headed towards the Gulf.

The comments by a hardliner cleric appeared partly aimed at discouraging President Hassan Rouhani and his moderate allies in Tehran from taking up an offer of talks from Washington.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran’s leaders to sit down and talk with him about giving up their nuclear program, and said he could not rule out a military confrontation, given the heightened tensions.

The carrier Abraham Lincoln, deployed as a warning to Iran, passed through Egypt’s Suez Canal on Thursday.

American B-52 bombers have also arrived at a US base in the Gulf, US Central Command said.

Iran has dismissed both moves as “psychological warfare” designed to intimidate it.

The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted hardliner Ayatollah Tabatabai-Nejad in the city of Isfahan as saying: “Their billion(-dollar) fleet can be destroyed with one missile.

“If they attempt any move, they will ... (face) dozens of missiles because at that time (government) officials won’t be in charge to act cautiously, but instead things will be in the hands of our beloved leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei),” he said.

Tabatabai-Nejad represents Supreme Leader Khamenei, widely seen to be closer to hard-liners than to Rouhani, in Isfahan.

Separately, Yadollah Javani, the elite Revolutionary Guards’ deputy head for political affairs, said: “No talks will be held with the Americans, and the Americans will not dare take military action against us.”

“Our nation ... sees America as unreliable,” he said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Thousands of Iranians took part in state-sponsored marches on Friday to show support for the government’s decision to scale back curbs on its nuclear program agreed under a 2015 deal with world powers. Iran has threatened to go further if other signatories fail to shield it from US economic sanctions.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Richard Moore, a visiting British Foreign Office official, that “Europe should not underestimate Iran’s determination to scale back its commitments (under the 2015 deal) phase-by-phase”, according to the state news agency IRNA.

Trump, who last year pulled Washington out of the deal and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran, has expressed a willingness to meet Iranian leaders in the past, and renewed it on Thursday.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said Tehran had been talking with the six powers, including the United States, within the framework of the nuclear deal.

“All of a sudden he (Trump) decided to leave the negotiating table ... What is the guarantee that he will not renege again?,” Takht Ravanchi said in a US television interview.

He dismissed US allegations of an Iranian threat as “fake intelligence”.

Meanwhile, US has waned its commercial ships including oil tankers sailing through key Middle East waterways that they could be targeted by Iran in one of the threats to US interests posed by Tehran in an advisory.

In the advisory posted on Thursday, the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) said that since early May there had been an increased possibility of Iran or its regional proxies taking action against US and partner interests.

These included, MARAD said, oil production infrastructure, after Tehran threatened to close the vital Strait of Hormuz chokepoint through which about one third of the world’s seaborne crude exports flow.

“Iran or its proxies could respond by targeting commercial vessels, including oil tankers, or US military vessels in the Red Sea, Bab-Al-Mandeb Strait, or the Arabian Gulf,” MARAD said.

“Reporting indicates heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against US forces and interests.”

Millions of barrels of oil pass daily through the various bottlenecks from Middle East oil producers to markets across the globe.

MARAD added that US-flagged ships were encouraged to contact the Fifth Fleet — which is tasked with protecting commercial shipping in the area — at least two days before sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. — Reuters