ShareTEHRAN/ JERUSALEM: Iran has full control of the Gulf and the US Navy does not belong there, the head of the navy of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, General Alireza Tangsiri, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying yesterday. Tehran has suggested it could take military action in the Gulf to block other countries' oil exports in retaliation for US sanctions intended to halt its sales of crude. Washington maintains a fleet in the Gulf that protects oil shipping routes.
Tangsiri said Iran had full control of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz that leads into it. Closing the strait would be the most direct way of blocking shipping. "We can ensure the security of the...Gulf and there is no need for the presence of aliens like the US and the countries whose home is not in here," he said in the quote, which appeared in English translation on Tasnim. He added, "All the carriers and military and non-military ships will be controlled and there is full supervision over the...Gulf. Our presence in the region is physical and constant and night and day."
Separately, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Iran's enemies would not prevail in a conflict. "The enemies are strictly avoiding any conflict with Iran because they know that it will not be beneficial for them," Jafari said, according to Tasnim. Tension between Iran and the United States has escalated since President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May and reimposed sanctions.
Senior US officials have said they aim to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most senior authority in the Islamic Republic, said last month that he supports the idea that if Iran is not allowed to export oil then no country should export oil from the Gulf.
Separately, Israel is working on a new missile system capable of hitting targets anywhere in the Middle East, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday. State-owned arms manufacturer Israel Military Industries (IMI) would deliver "within a few years" an advanced integrated system "allowing precise hits by remote launching", he said in a statement. Lieberman added that the contract with IMI was budgeted at "hundreds of millions of shekels". The Israeli shekel is currently trading at 3.63 to the US dollar.
"The project for setting up a precision rocket and missile system is underway," Lieberman said in the statement. "Part of it is already in production and part is in the final phases of research and development. We are acquiring and developing precision fire systems that will allow... the Israel Defense Forces to cover within a few years every point in the region."
Israel is considered the leading military power in the Middle East and believed to be the only country in the region to possess nuclear weapons. Foreign military experts say it has several batteries of its Jericho ballistic missile, capable of delivering nuclear warheads. IMI said in 2004 that it had produced a cruise missile, the Delilah, with a range of 250 km. It also has an array of anti-missile rocket systems but yesterday's statement quoted IMI chairman Yitzhak Aharonovitch saying that the new armament would "reflect the company's technological capabilities, which specialize in the ability to fire accurately, to strike at a variety of ground targets".
Israel faces a variety of threats and considers Iran its most dangerous foe in the region. It is regularly targeted by rockets and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip, ruled by Islamist movement Hamas. Another of its enemies is the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah based in neighboring Lebanon. Israel also shares a border with Syria, where Iran and Hezbollah are fighting alongside President Bashar Al-Assad in his country's civil war.
Netanyahu has pledged to prevent Tehran from further entrenching itself in Syria and a series of recent strikes that have killed Iranians there have been attributed to Israel. Lieberman did not reveal details of the planned new system or its potential targets and his office did not respond to AFP requests for information. - Agencies
