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The Revolutionary Guard commander, Major General Hossein Salami, vowed on Saturday to respond to “any movement” against Iran, during his visit to a strategic island in the Gulf, in light of growing tension with the United States.
Salami inspected military forces on the island of Abu Musa, on the eve of the first anniversary of the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force in the Revolutionary Guard, in a US incursion into Iraq on January 3, 2020.
“We are here today to conduct an assessment and make sure of our strong capabilities at sea and against enemies who sometimes boast … and threaten,” Salami said, “according to the guards’ official website,” Sepah News “.
“We will respond with an equal, decisive and powerful blow to any step that the enemy can take against us,” he added.
Salami, accompanied by the commander of the Naval Guards Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri, inspected the forces on the island of Abu Musa, west of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of world oil production passes.
This was followed by another visit by Tangsiri to the islands of Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb on December 25, where he stressed the importance of the military forces “readiness and alertness for combat”, according to the Iranian agency ISNA.
Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb lie north of Abu Musa. The United Arab Emirates accuses Iran of “occupying” these islands.
This comes amid growing tension between Tehran and Washington as the memory of Soleimani, one of Iran’s most prominent military leaders, looms.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused outgoing US President Donald Trump of seeking to create a “pretext” to launch a “war” against the Islamic Republic.
This came on the heels of US military movements in the region, which included the departure of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and associated naval pieces to Gulf waters in recent weeks, and the B-52 strategic bomber flights over the Gulf twice. Recently.
But US press reports this week said Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller had ordered the carrier to return home.
“The New York Times” quoted US officials as saying the move was a sign of “de-escalation” with respect to Tehran, after growing fears of a confrontation between the two sides in the remaining days for Trump in the White House.
Decades-broken relations between the Islamic Republic and the United States witnessed additional tensions during the Trump era, which adopted a policy of “maximum pressure” toward Tehran.
In 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal between Tehran and the major powers on the Iranian nuclear program and reimposed tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The two countries have been on the brink of a direct military confrontation twice since June 2019, especially after Soleimani’s assassination by a US drone strike near the Baghdad airport.
Days after this assassination, Tehran responded with missile attacks on military bases in Iraq where US soldiers were present.
Iranian officials claim that “revenge” against those involved in the killing has not yet been completed.
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