TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said on Sunday it was able to ensure the security of vital Gulf waters with the cooperation of neighboring countries following maritime tensions with the United States.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran and the countries south of the Persian Gulf are able to cooperate in ensuring the security of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman,” said Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces. on Sunday.
He was speaking at a ceremony held near the strategic Strait of Hormuz to celebrate the conclusion of an eight-month-long mission by the Iranian Navy to circumnavigate the globe.
Gulf waters, which carry at least a third of the world’s marine oil, have seen a series of incidents since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal and imposed severe sanctions on Iran. was implemented again.
Bagheri’s comments come days after Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. transferred Following a series of Iranian attacks on shipping in the Gulf, a guided-missile destroyer met with French and British naval commanders to outline a unified stance on the defense of waterways through the Strait of Hormuz.
And earlier this month, the United States said it was sending reinforcements to the Gulf following increased harassment by Iran of ships in the oil-rich waters.
Example: A boat of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy operates near the patrol coastal ship USS Sirocco and the expeditionary fast transport USNS Choctaw County in the Strait of Hormuz on June 20, 2022. (US Navy via AP)
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker, Advantage Sweet, in the Gulf of Oman bound for the United States in late April.
Iran said the tanker had collided with one of its ships, leaving two Iranian crew members missing and several others injured.
Meanwhile, Iran’s official news agency IRNA quoted Abbas Gholamshahi, a rear admiral in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Navy, as saying on Saturday that the force “has full control over all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.”
