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Iranian navy ends massive drills
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CNTV, January 4, 2012
Iran has wrapped up ten days of naval drills near the Strait of Hormuz with a series of big parades amidst rising tensions in the region.
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Iranian military personnel place a national flag on a submarine during the "Velayat-90" navy exercises in the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran. |
All naval forces and vessels participating in the drills have taken part in the massive parades.
The Navy showed off destroyers, missile-launching frigates, hovercraft, submarines, and helicopters.
The drill, dubbed "Velayat-90", was held in a 2,000 km stretch of water beyond the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, as well as parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.
The location is of particular significance, given that one sixth of world oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
The drills continued to attract international attention when Iran test-fired medium and long-range missiles capable of hitting Israel and US bases in the region.
And just as the 10-day exercise ended, Iran's army chief warned the US not to send its aircraft carrier back to the Persian Gulf.
Iranian Army Commander-in-chief General Ataollah Salehi said: "We want to emphasize that we have no plan to begin any irrational act, but we are ready against any threat. And we recommend, advise or, better to say, we warn the American warship which was previously in the Persian Gulf, which is a threat to us, that it should not return, and we are not used to repeating our warnings."
This is Tehran's most aggressive statement yet after weeks of sabre-rattling as new US and EU financial sanctions take a toll on its economy.
The prospect of sanctions targeting the oil sector in a serious way for the first time has hit Iran's currency, which has fallen by forty percent against the US dollar in the past month.
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