British News Agency

Iran announced that after the deployment of the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and other US military assets to the Middle East, it will conduct two days of live-fire naval drills starting on Sunday.

The US Central Command warned Iran's military, stating that it will not tolerate "unsafe" maneuvers, including flights over US warships and Iran's fast boats approaching US ships on a collision course.

With President Donald Trump's repeated threats of attacking Iran amid anti-government protests and efforts to limit Iran's nuclear program, tensions between Tehran and Washington have been rising for weeks.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that his country is ready for "fair and just" negotiations but has rejected Trump's core demands. Araghchi emphasized that defense strategies and missile systems would never be on the negotiating table.

The Strait of Hormuz, which resembles a curve when viewed from space, is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. Ships can travel through it to the rest of the world.

While both Iran and Oman have territorial waters in the strait, it is considered an international waterway through which all ships can pass. The United Arab Emirates is also close to this waterway.

Although Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pipelines that could bypass this passage, the US Energy Information Administration points out that "most of the oil passing through the strait has no alternative way out of the region".

Most of the oil and gas passing through the strait goes to Asian markets. Threats to this route have previously caused global energy prices to rise, including the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June of last year.