Iran conducts military exercises in the Gulf of Oman
This Tuesday the Iranian army's land forces conducted military manoeuvres on the coast of the Gulf of Oman as part of a lightning military exercise conducted by Teheran in a context of growing tension over its nuclear programme.
The manoeuvre, which was broadcast on national television and supervised by Commander Abdul Rahim Mousavi, also employed fighters, helicopters and military transport aircraft.
"The manoeuvres are an important part of Iran's policy of deterrence, so that the enemies do not make an error of calculation or in their assessments of the country's defence capabilities", the commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, told the Iranian news agency Fars.
Iran would be stepping up military exercises as part of an effort to put pressure on President-elect Joe Biden over the nuclear deal signed in 2015 to contain Tehran's nuclear programme, from which the Trump Administration withdrew and to which the new president promised to try to return.
Since the United States abandoned the agreement, a battery of sanctions has been imposed and tightened in the last weeks of Donald Trump's mandate, a fact which analysts view as an attempt by the still president to hinder the new administration's future negotiations with Iran.
Tehran, for its part, has gradually abandoned the restrictions imposed by the agreement. In recent weeks, Iran raised its uranium enrichment rate to 20 percent. Furthermore, the aforementioned manoeuvres were not the only ones organised by the Islamic Republic.
On Saturday the Revolutionary Guard conducted a simulation, launching ballistic missiles against simulated targets at a distance of 1,800 km in the Indian Ocean, just one day after the airborne division of the paramilitary corps launched missiles and drones against "hypothetical enemy bases" in the country's central desert.
Last Thursday, the Iranian Navy fired cruise missiles as part of a naval simulation in the Gulf of Oman, under the alleged surveillance of a US nuclear submarine. Early last week, the Revolutionary Guard carried out a manoeuvre in the Gulf, following a massive drone drill.
The Iranian chief of staff, Muhammad Baqeri, stated that the Iranian forces conducted "10 successful manoeuvres", and stated that they had achieved military and defence achievements "that cannot be disclosed".
Recently the secretary of state Mike Pompeo thanked his allies in the Gulf for their collaboration in protecting the Straits of Hormuz, one of the most important geographical points for maritime oil transport, located between Iran on one side of the coast and Oman on the other.
Maritime navigation in the Straits has been threatened by attacks on cargo ships and oil tankers by Teheran. At the beginning of January, Iran announced the arrest of the South Korean-flagged tanker "Hankook Chimi", which was carrying 7,200 tonnes of petroleum chemicals, and the arrest of its 20 crew members.
In response to the Islamic Republic's threats to the stability of the region, Washington has sent B-52 strategic bombers, in addition to the aircraft carrier "USS Nimitz" and a nuclear submarine.
The United States' economic sanctions were probably behind Iran's motivation to confiscate the South Korean vessel, as South Korean banks froze $7 billion of Tehran's funds precisely because of these sanctions.
The latest sanctions announced by the Treasury Department targeted two organisations and their respective subsidiaries, controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The sanctions involved freezing property and assets on US soil and prohibiting US citizens and companies from doing business with the organisations.
With one day to go before Joe Biden takes office as President of the United States, tension is rising. Although the new president is willing to return to the negotiating table to revive the 2015 agreement, it will be decisive whether the Iranians elect a president who will continue with Rohaní's negotiating line in June or opt for confrontation.
