Fifteen hundred Iranian "boats" and a hundred Iranian aircraft under the gulf will make excellent fishing and diving structures.
Posted on 03/30/2006 5:35:32 AM PST by robowombat
IRAN: LARGE-SCALE MILITARY DRILLS TO START IN THE GULF
Tehran, 30 March (AKI) - Iran has announced it will start on Friday a week-long military drill in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The manoeuvre is aimed at preparing the armed forces against threats, Iran's IRNA news agency quoted a senior commander as saying. The military exercises will last until 6 April and will involve 17,000 servicemen, 1,500 vessels and jet fighter planes.
The commander of the navy of Revolutionary Guards Corps, Rear Admiral Mostafa Safari, did not explain what type of threat Iran faced. However, the manoeuvre comes just two days after the UN Security Council called on Iran to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities amid fears in the West that Tehran is seeking to build atomic weapons.
Safari told IRNA that the operation will help the army gain "the necessary and needed readiness to decisively reply to any kind of threat."
Iran has medium-range Shahab-3 missiles with the capability of 2,000 kilometres, capable of hitting Israel and US bases across the Middle East.
"The exercise will cover an area stretching from the northern tip of the Gulf all the way to the port city of Chah-Bahar in the Sea of Oman extending 40 kilometres into the sea," he said.
The drill's spokesman Rear Admiral Mohammed Ebrahim said that the exercises will mainly focus on the strait of Hormouz.
"Some 80 percent of the Gulf's oil is shipped out of this strait over which Iran has dominant and accurate control," he said. "If the enemy wants to make the area insecure, he should be rest assured that he will also suffer from the insecurity, since we know the location of their vessels."
That would be some good target practice for our troops.
Target rich environment.
Fifteen hundred Iranian "boats" and a hundred Iranian aircraft under the gulf will make excellent fishing and diving structures.
Message to Abdul Mohammed Ahmed Pigfornicator (President of Iran):
Israel's national motto is "NEVER AGAIN"!
The Interdeployment Training Cycle had U.S.S. Reagan entering the Gulf last week.
anyway, iran is just talk big. just send 10 f-16 wipe out all the 1500 plane. 8 hornet down all the ship. 6 fortress bomber flatten all the iranian army with daisy bomd. on second day, free from hostile and the road to teheran is easily.
Wonder if this is a prelude to shutting down the Staits?
let us strike first
bombs away!
That would be an act of war.
There is already about $20/bbl fear factor built into every bbl of oil transported by tanker today.
More bluster in response to the U.N.
Yeah, it's a message they're trying to send, but they're not going to do anything aggressive until they can test a nuclear weapon. And who knows when that will be. There are so many different estimates, the only proof will be a test - and then it's too late. I don't see Iran shutting down the Straits. They won't do anything like that until they are fully prepared to respond to certain bombardment from the West.
They have Silkworm missiles, which may have been improved
(range, warhead size). They may also have reverse engineered
weapons like the Exocet.
They can hold shipping in the Gulf at high risk and complicate the world oil markets. We would have to take
warlike actions to counter any of this which in itself
would cause a hit to oil markets.
This is a complicated problem. Not amenable to the usual
simplistic FR remedies.
I'm getting the popcorn ready...
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