Iran: Any US Craft, Manned or Unmanned, Spying on Russia, China-Iran Naval Drills to be Attacked

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TEHRAN (Sputnik) – Any spying aircraft spotted in the area of joint drills of Iran, Russia, China will be destroyed, the Coordinating Deputy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, Habibollah Sayyari, told Tasnim news agency on Saturday.

“Many countries are definitely seeking to know what the matter is. Spies have also taken action. A joint war game is no joke, and this is no joking matter for us either. We will hit whatever spying craft in the war game zone, be it watercraft or aircraft, as we have proved having such a capability in the past,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of Iran’s Armed Forces for Coordination Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said that Iran, Russia and China intend to continue to conduct joint military drills in the future.

“The naval drills of Iran, Russia and China in the northern Indian Ocean are definitely not the last,” he said.

Russia, Iran and China launched a joint naval exercise, dubbed Naval Security Belt, in the northern Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman earlier in the day. During the exercise, participants are set to engage in drills fighting terrorism and piracy, as well as providing regional security.



The drill will last four days and will include the three states sharing the experience of naval rescue operations.

Earlier, the Pentagon, which has announced its own ‘maritime security’ operation in the region, confirmed that it was aware of the drills and would be closely monitoring the situation.

The drills are the first international maritime exercises of their kind for Iran since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which saw the overthrow of the US-backed regime of the Shah.

The joint naval exercises, taking place in the Gulf of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean, are the first of their kind for the Iranian Navy since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

The first footage from the joint Russian-Iranian-Chinese wargames which kicked off Friday has been making its way online, showing joint training, vessels sailing, and Iranian forces welcoming Russian frigate Yaroslav Mudry at Chabahar Port in southeastern Iran, about 415 km southeast of the Strait of Hormuz.

Rear Admiral Gholamreza Tahani, deputy commander of the Iranian Navy, described the drills as an opportunity to engage in “an exchange of experience in the maritime relief and rescue fields; the strengthening and improvement of international maritime trade security in the northern region of the Indian Ocean.”

“The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting security through cooperation and unity,” the senior officer stressed, adding that the drills help show that Iran cannot be isolated.

The drills, set to run until Monday, include search and rescue operations, simulating operations to extinguish vessels which have caught fire, as well as defence against piracy and shooting drills, with both Iran’s Navy and its elite Revolutionary Guards naval formations participating. A total of three Russian vessels are taking part in the drills, with China deploying its new Xining guided-missile destroyer.

The drills, code named ‘Naval Security Belt’, are taking place across some 17,000 square km of maritime territory, stretching from Chabahar Port into the Gulf of Omanand the northern Indian Ocean.

On Thursday, the Pentagon, which has announced its own ‘maritime security’ operation in the region, confirmed that it was aware of the drills and would be closely monitoring the situation.

The drills are the first international maritime exercises of their kind for Iran since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which saw the overthrow of the US-backed regime of the Shah.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated Iran’s willingness to work with its neighbours to secure the Persian Gulf via that Hormuz Peace Endeavour (HOPE) initiative – a concept for a regional coalition to secure the Persian Gulf proposed by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the UN in September.

According to Zarif, the ongoing drills serve to “make clear our broader commitment to secure vital waterways.”

Iran’s maritime security proposal is aimed at countering the Washington-led coalition, known as ‘Sentinel’, which includes the US, the UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Albania, with Israel also reportedly providing unspecified assistance. The US announced its coalition in the midst of the 2019 Persian Gulf Crisis, which saw the seizure and/or sabotage of multiple commercial vessels passing through the Persian Gulf area this past summer, culminating in the destruction of a $220 million US spy drone in the Strait of Hormuz by the Revolutionary Guards. The US’s German and French allies, as well as Japan have demonstrably chosen to stay out of the US-led initiative, with Tokyo expected to send its own naval forces to the region in January after receiving the go-ahead from Tehran.

Russian and Chinese warships joined Iran’s Navy and Revolutionary Guards vessels on Friday for four days’ worth of maritime exercises in the Gulf of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean, simulating search and rescue, anti-piracy and shooting drills.

The US Navy is concerned that the recent lull in hostilities with Iran following this summer’s string of escalatory actions in the form of tanker sabotage attacks, ship seizures and drone shootdowns may be repeated, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has said.

“I think they’re going to continue to perform provocative actions over there,” Modly said, speaking to Reuters on Friday. “And I think they’ll look at every opportunity they can to do that,” he added, without offering any more details.

“There’s nothing that suggests to me, short of a regime change there, that you have a different tone set from the leadership, that would suggest to me that they’re going to stop doing what they’ve been doing,” Modly explained.

The top Navy official also complained about how the US’s ‘response’ to Iran has forced it to take its eye off more serious adversaries, like China.

“As they start creating mischief over there…our reaction is we send an aircraft carrier over there for 10 months,” Modly said. “What does [the Iran deployment] do to our carrier readiness? It degrades readiness the longer it’s over there,” he complained.

FILE - In this June 3, 2019 file photo, a pilot speaks to a crew member by an F/A-18 fighter jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea
© AP PHOTO / JON GAMBRELL
FILE – In this June 3, 2019 file photo, a pilot speaks to a crew member by an F/A-18 fighter jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea

Joint Drills

On Friday, units of the Iranian Navy and Revolutionary Guards were joined by Russian and Chinese warships for maritime security drills which Iranian officials said proved that their country could not be isolated. The drills, set to run until Monday, are the first of their kind for Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Friday that the drills made clear the three countries’ “broader commitment to secure vital waterways” amid US efforts to build a regional ‘maritime security coalition’ known as ‘Sentinel’. Tehran proposed a regional maritime coalition in September which excluded outsiders the US and

Tensions between the US and Iran have subsided in recent months, even though verbal back-and-forth threats and warnings have continued. Relations the two countries, which enjoyed a thaw toward the end of the Obama administration thanks to the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015, worsened dramatically in May 2018 after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and slapped Iran with several rounds of energy and banking sanctions. In May 2019, Tehran began scaling back its commitment to the nuclear deal, citing its European signatories’ apparent inability to secure its interests. The country maintains, however, that it has no intention of pursuing weapons of mass destruction, saying such arms run counter to the country’s Islamic faith.

Head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh looks at debris from what the division describes as the U.S. drone which was shot down on Thursday, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 21, 2019
© AP PHOTO / MEGHDAD MADADI
Head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh looks at debris from what the division describes as the U.S. drone which was shot down on Thursday, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 21, 2019

Also in May, the US announced that it would be deploying a carrier strike group to the Middle East to counter an unspecified ‘Iranian threat’ against its interests in the region. This was followed by a series of sabotage attacks, tanker seizures and the shootdown of a $220 million US drone over the Strait of Hormuz in June, with tensions between the two countries escalating to the brink of war.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. The Saudi/Israeli pundits all across the social media are downplaying the importance of three superpowers having a show of force right in their backyard, by calling it “two nuclear power and a JCPOA powered country” etc…

    Just a few years ago, before General Soleimani wiped the floor with the Israeli day laborers in Syria, the rightwing Russian Jews who can’t stand the alliance of these three countries, wanting to see the end of Iran at any cost, were all over these pages spreading their silly remarks about the impossibility of such alliance in case of a real war.
    How about it … you good hasbara lapdogs of Likud.
    So far Trump has kept his big piehole shut. He’s waiting for his instructions on what to type.

  2. Threatening a bully puts them in a panic mode. The bully immediately forms a war council. Once a line is drawn with a stern warning, cross it and the hammer falls and of course all parties test the threat. The good thing is, racing across the line and denying it can go on for years.

  3. i agree with both posters below. The bullies running the outlaw criminal government of the U.S. seem to believe they own the world. Read about how these criminals aided criminals in Israel who attacked the 2010 peaceful flotilla in international waters and killed many innocent folks. How about Iran, China and Russia conducting operations off NY Harbor or the East or South or West Coast off LA Harbor? The fools running the U.S. government should look up the meaning of hypocrisy. Some of us citizens and taxpayers are tired of the criminal activities of our corrupt government illegally in Syria and many other parts of the world. These countries have every right to say, “Go F yourselves!” Watch the video of former Marine Ken O’keefe at LAX in 2016. Our outlaw government gang rapes Amendments 4 and 5 thousands of times a day at every airport in the country all based on the lies of 9/11/01 done by criminals in Israel and the US. All outlaws in our government should do us a favor and resign.

    • Israel lover liar Trump has sold us all out too. He promised to come clean on 9/11/01. Instead he joined these criminals over there. He, along with all of the whores in Congress, sold us all out. What a disgrace they all are. Shame, shame , shame…on them. DC has no representation and these thugs quietly removed the license plate on the limo expressing that complaint to which no one has the guts to address.

  4. “As they start creating mischief over there…our reaction is we send an aircraft carrier over there for 10 months,”. Classic projection there. Mouldy, yes I deliberately typed that, if you get a copy of this ..you sir are an Idiot. REALLY?? Iran creating mischief in its own territorial waters? Are you fcuking kidding me? Go home Yankee.

  5. “THERE’S NOTHING THAT SUGGESTS TO ME, SHORT OF A REGIME CHANGE THERE, THAT YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT TONE SET FROM THE LEADERSHIP, THAT WOULD SUGGEST TO ME THAT THEY’RE GOING TO STOP DOING WHAT THEY’VE BEEN DOING,” MODLY EXPLAINED.
    IMHO, the diction, syntax, etc. of this quote might indicate a somewhat dysfunctional mind. Imagine, if you will, a box of antiquated “flash-cards” entitled “B.S.” summarily ‘dumped’ into a completely corrupted mind. I’d wager that this useful-idiot bumps dick-heads with Yosemite Sam Bolton.

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