Shortly after a confrontation between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the United States Navy in the Sea of Oman over a seized oil tanker, a large-scale sea, land and air military drill is being held by the Iranian armed forces.
Expected to incorporate manned and unmanned aircraft, armoured vehicles, missiles, soldiers, vessels and radar systems in both offensive and defensive capacities, the drill was reportedly launched on Sunday morning.
A million square kilometres
In an area encompassing one million square kilometres east of the Strait of Hormuz, the northern parts of the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman, the exercises are to be held as said to the state television by the commander in chief of the Iranian Army.
In addition to the coasts of Makran, on land, the drill is reported to be held in the general area of Hormozgan and the southeastern provinces of Sistan and Balochistan.
From the southeastern port of Konarak, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s army said that since they are well aware of their enemy’s attempt to gather its required information after Iran’s forces mobilised in the area, efforts are now being reinforced in order to monitor enemy movements that had begun days ago.
An operation to breach enemy shore defences from the sea shall be undertaken by vessels and commandos during the first day of the drill which is expected to last several days, on the other hand, missile and radar systems along with the Iranian forces will simulate defending beach lines, as detailed by the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Army.
Clips aired
Footages of commandos parachuting out of aircraft to land on beach areas, soldiers boarding combat helicopters and speedboats manoeuvring at sea were also aired by the State TV.
Amid tensions with the United States, disagreements with northwestern neighbour Azerbaijan and threats by Israel, in recent months, several large-scale drills have been held by the Iranian Army and the IRGC in various parts of the country.
Tanker incident
In relation to a confrontation over a Vietnamese-flagged tanker publicised on Wednesday that they said the US tried to seize in order to “steal” its cargo of Iranian oil, Iran’s military capabilities were continued to be praised by the Iranian military officials on Sunday although it was unclear where the tanker was heading.
According to what was said by the IRGC’S political deputy to the state broadcaster, the United States was making an attempt to enforce unilateral sanctions it imposed following its 2018 withdrawal from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal along with trying to prevent the Iranian oil sales.
With an objective to deploy troops on the tanker that wanted to steal Iranian oil along with redirecting the ships to Iranian waters from a long distance, the IRGC Navy forces used heliborne operations which resulted in the Americans being caught unawares, as said by the commander-in-chief of Iran’s army.
showing Iranian soldiers boarding the vessel, dramatic footage of the incident, which happened on October 25 was aired by state television earlier this week. Along with escorting the tanker back, the Iranian soldiers were also shown warning off a US ship and helicopter.
The crew of the tanker known to be called the Sothys, is now under Iranian custody and Vietnam said that it has already commenced talks in order to release them.
Saying the Iranian claim that it had been trying to steal their oil was not true, a contrasting account of what happened during the incident has been offered by the United States officials who also said that the US forces were present simply to monitor the situation.
Just a day before the 42nd anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran leading to a hostage crisis lasting for around 444 days, the incident was publicised.
Along with the commander-in-chief of IRGC praising the response to the tanker incident, the anniversary was celebrated on Thursday by Iranian officials with anti-American and anti-Israeli messages.
In order to restore Iran’s nuclear deal, talks with the world powers in Vienna was announced by Iran on Wednesday. If the deal gets somehow restored, it will possibly lift the US sanctions.