Navy Commander: Iran Monitoring All Military Moves in Region
Iran's Armed Forces are closely monitoring all moves and activities of foreign forces in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, a senior Iranian military commander stressed on Sunday.
"Navy's missions are not limited to wartime. We are doing patrols in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, monitoring and tracing foreign forces' movements and in the air, sea and under water," Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said.
He also pointed to his forces' mission for protecting Iranian trade vessels, and said, "And we are tasked with providing full security for our trade vessels in (Iran's) territorial waters and the Gulf of Aden."
The Iranian Navy has already dispatched several flotillas of warships to the Gulf of Aden to defend the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against continued attacks by Somali pirates.
Late in May, an Iranian patrol spotted a US nuclear-armed submarine in the strategic Strait of Hormuz which allows the passage of 90 percent of the oil produced by the Persian Gulf states to Asia, the US and Western Europe.
Iranian military and government officials have always warned that in case of an attack by either the US or Israel, the country will target 32 American bases in the Middle East and Israel and its worldwide interest and will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway.
Source: farsnews.com
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