News / Defense

Foreign military presence brings insecurity to Persian Gulf: IRGC Navy chief

Sunday, 18 August 2019 10:12 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 18 August 2019 10:13 AM ]

Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri

The top commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy warns that foreign military presence in the Persian Gulf brings insecurity and instability to the region.

Speaking on Sunday, IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri stressed that deep waterways in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman and between Iranian islands were safe and that the Islamic Republic had always worked to establish security there.

“Today, we can establish security in the Persian Gulf. Iran is the flag-bearer [among the countries] establishing security,” he stressed.

He also said that the seven countries to the south of the Persian Gulf plus Iran were fully capable of establishing security.

However, he warned, foreign military presence would be cause for insecurity.

“If the region was set on fire, the foreigners would merely seek to convince regional countries that they need weapons,” Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said. “In fact, the United States and the United Kingdom want to insinuate that the region is insecure.”

He said the Persian Gulf was an “enclosed” gulf, and that US aircraft carriers and submarines operating on nuclear fuel would cause serious trouble if “they encountered some problem.”

“[If that happened,] the very countries south of the Persian Gulf and our Muslim neighbors — which have [so many] water desalination machines — will have no water to drink,” he said.

The United States has recently been attempting to persuade its allies to join a coalition with the declared aim of providing “security” for commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of all oil consumed globally passes.

Only Israel and the UK have welcomed the call, which has been rejected by Washington’s other allies.

The US claims that Tehran has played a role in two mysterious attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman in May and June, which Iran has categorically denied.

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