Tehran/Dubai: Iran's elite military force is to start a three-day naval exercise today in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that is crucial to global oil supplies.
The Revolutionary Guards' exercises in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz will take place at a time of rising tension between Iran and the West, which alleges that Tehran's nuclear programme is aimed at developing bombs. Iran denies the charge.
Approximately 40 per cent of the world's seaborne oil trade passes through the waterway.
Iran has also reacted angrily to what is sees as US President Barack Obama's threat to attack it with nuclear arms.
Obama recently excluded Iran and North Korea from new limits on the use of US atomic weapons -- something Tehran interpreted as a threat from a long-standing adversary.
"The international community should not let Obama get away with nuclear threats," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday.
Brigadier General Hossein Salami said: "Maintaining security in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, as the world's key economic and energy routes, is the main goal of the war games," he said. "This war game is not a threat for any friendly countries."
Naval, air and ground forces from the Guards would take part, Iranian state news agency Fars said.
Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has described Iran's nuclear programme as a threat to its existence. Although it says it wants a diplomatic solution, Washington has also not ruled out military action.
Iran has said it would respond to any attack by targeting US interests in the region and Israel, as well as closing the Strait of Hormuz.
"Peace and friendship, security, tranquillity and mutual trust are the messages of this war game for neighbouring countries in the Gulf region," the general added.
Arab countries in the Gulf are concerned about spreading Iranian influence in the region and also share Western fears about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
War games
Alex Vatanka, Editor of Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst, said there was an external and domestic factor to the war games. Besides being a show of strength to its adversaries the United States and Israel, "Iran is also saying to the Gulf Arab states that it is the key regional player".
Domestically, he added, a show of strength by the IRGC is an effort to bolster the hold on power of its key supporters in the ruling establishment, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"The Gulf Arab states have legitimate security concerns about their giant neighbour to the north… [but] Iran is not trying to play big brother to them, particularly the UAE," he added, citing Iran's relatively muted reaction to UAE foreign minister Shaikh Abdullah's Bin Zayed Al Nahyan's criticism of Iran's policies at the Federal National Council on Tuesday.
"If it was any other state, Iran would retaliate with rhetoric. [Instead], the Iranian media has been emphasizing the improvement [in relations between the two countries]. They're putting a positive spin to it", he said.
Sites not finalised
Iran's atomic chief yesterday said the sites for building new uranium enrichment plants have yet to be finalised, denying reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already approved the locations.
"The designs for the first new nuclear [enrichment] site will be done this year," Ali Akbar Salehi told ILNA news agency.
"The location of this nuclear site has not yet been finalised. After the president's approval, a decision will be made in this regard."
On Monday, Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, a senior adviser to Ahmadinejad, said the president had "approved the locations of the new nuclear sites" and the "construction at these sites will start with his order."
But Hashemi also clarified that the designs of the new plants were currently under study.
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