“Iran, as the major power in the Persian Gulf, guarantees energy exports from the region," Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a senior military adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday.
Iran is the most geostrategically important country in Southwest Asia, he noted.
Rahim-Safavi also stated that Iran plays a prominent and influential role in the political, cultural, economic, and security equations of Southwest Asia.
He went on to say that Tehran, along with Moscow and Beijing, will thwart the United States’ hegemonistic plots in the region.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy recently conducted military drills in southern Iran as part of their tactical training for modern warfare.
The exercises, overseen by the commander of the IRGC Navy, Rear Admiral Reza Torabi, were held in the waters of the Persian Gulf near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
The exercises were conducted to boost the combat readiness of IRGC forces, familiarize them with the latest military achievements, increase their response time, ensure well-timed responses to natural and manmade disasters, and provide an opportunity for IRGC forces to become acquainted with new weapons.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Rahim-Safavi played down the effects of the US-engineered economic sanctions imposed on Iran and said Washington’s economic war against the Islamic Republic will eventually fail.
At the beginning of the year 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors.
On October 15, 2012, EU foreign ministers agreed on another round of sanctions against Iran.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.
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A high-ranking Iranian military official says the Islamic Republic is the main power providing security in the Persian Gulf and ensuring the safe passage of energy supplies through the strategic body of water.
News ID 183966
