(AKI) - A former general with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, now military advisor to Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has announced that the Revolutionary Guards have been tasked with patrolling the Persian Gulf and protecting ports in the south of the country.
The armed forces, who were until now involved in the defence of the country's maritime borders, have been removed and the navy is only been deployed on the northern maritime boundary of the Caspian Sea. The decision was taken after news that other foreign navies, particularly the US Navy, was headed towards the Persian Gulf.
"The US fleet is afraid of the fast ships of the Revolutionary Guards and their capacity for immediate reactions to every violation in our national waters," said Rahim Safavi.
In the past 12 months, the Revolutionary Guards' ships have come close to US ships in international waters several times and on more than one occasion they narrowly avoided an accident at the last minute.
Rahim Safavi has also announced that the Revolutionary Guards' missiles cover the entire region of the Persian Gulf. "No vessel can navigate this area without coming in sight of our missiles," he said.
In June, the leader of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jaafari, had threatened the closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which 40 percent of the world's oil passes, if Iran was attacked. |