Iran
held joint naval, air, and ground exercises in the Gulf on Friday 30 Dec near
the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway, state media reported.
The
drills involve submarines and drones “practicing information-gathering
operations against attacking forces, as well as reconnaissance operations,”
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told the official IRNA news agency.
The exercises, code named
Zolfaghar-1401, were launched overnight Friday in the eastern side of the
strait in the Gulf of Oman.
Tehran, which opposes the presence of
U.S. and Western navies in the area, holds annual war games in the Strait of
Hormuz, the conduit for some 30% of all crude oil traded by sea.
Sayyari
said foreign forces must leave the area “so that regional countries can
establish stability and peace in their neighborhood,” the English-language
state-run Press TV reported.