Dubai: Iran's next round of Gulf naval drills will practise the armed forces' ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, a lawmaker on parliament's national security committee was cited by Mehr News as saying.
The elite Revolutionary Guards Corp will start naval exercises on January 27 in the Gulf with the aim of enhancing the country's ability to close the chokepoint into that body of water "in the shortest possible time when the situation requires it", Mehr cited Esmail Kowsari, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, as saying in a report published yesterday.
The drills are planned as tensions mount between the country and the US and European allies over its nuclear programme. Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, the defence minister, said the drills will be the "greatest naval war games" to be conducted by the elite corps, Fars news agency reported on Friday. Meanwhile, Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes, a leading hardline newspaper reported yesterday.
Kayhan daily, which is close to Iran's ruling clerics, said Tehran has begun injecting uranium gas into sophisticated centrifuges at the Fordo facility near the holy city of Qom.
Enrichment
Iran is under UN sanctions for refusing to stop uranium enrichment — which can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material — and other suspected activities that the international community fears could be used to make atomic arms.
Tehran says it only seeks reactors for energy and research and refuses to halt enrichment activities.
"Kayhan received reports yesterday that show Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility amid heightened foreign enemy threats," the paper said in a front-page report.
