Tehran, Iran, May 4
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
Iran will stage naval drills wherever and whenever needed, said Deputy Commander of the Iranian Navy's District One Reza Abbasi.
Military preparedness and power boost will be impossible without launching big special drills, he said, Tasnim news agency reported May 4.
The remarks come after a recently introduced US House of Representatives resolution which criticizes Iran's military activities in the Persian Gulf.
"What our military doctrines guide us to is to keep up the deterrence, protect territorial waters, and show up in far away international waters as a way to defend Iran's national interests. But what rules the American thought is to go to extra-territorial waters to conquer and bully," the commander said.
"The US Navy goes to the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman only to create insecurity and spread terrorism," he stressed.
"We will appear in full force any time, anywhere... and consider staging drills and large war games as a must," Abbasi reiterated.
Following the US resolution, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States against keeping a military presence in the Persian Gulf and vowed that the Islamic Republic will continue to carry out war drills in the area despite warnings.