MANAMA, Feb 13, (Agencies): Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the US Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of US naval forces in the region said on Sunday.
Iran has made a series of threats in recent weeks to disrupt shipping in the Gulf or strike US forces in retaliation if its oil trade is shut down by sanctions, or if its disputed nuclear programme comes under attack.
“They have increased the number of submarines ... they increased the number of fast attack craft,” Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters. “Some of the small boats have been outfitted with a
large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device. The Iranians have a large mine inventory.”
“We have watched with interest their development of long range rockets and short, medium and long range ballistic missiles and of course ... the development of their nuclear programme,” Fox, who heads the US Fifth Fleet, said at a briefing on the fleet’s base in the Gulf state of Bahrain.
Iran now has 10 small submarines, he said.
Military experts say the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet patrolling the Gulf — which always has at least one giant supercarrier accompanied by scores of jets and a fleet of frigates and destroyers — is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran’s navy.
But ever since al-Qaeda suicide bombers in a small boat killed 17 sailors on board the destroyer USS Cole in a port in Yemen in 2000, Washington has been wary of the vulnerability of its huge battleships to bomb attacks by small enemy craft.
Asked whether the US Navy was prepared for an attack or other trouble in the Gulf, Fox said: “We are very vigilant, we have built a wide range of options to give the president and we are ready... What if it happened tonight? We are ready today.”
Iranian officials have threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet to the Gulf through which nearly all of the Middle East’s oil sails.
Asked if he took Iran’s threats seriously, Fox said: “Could they make life extremely difficult for us? Yes they could. If we did nothing and they were able to operate without being inhibited, yeah they could close it, but I can’t see that we would ever be in that position.”
He added that diplomacy should be given priority in resolving the tension.
“So when you hear discussion about all this overheated rhetoric from Iran we really believe that the best way to handle this is with diplomacy... I am absolutely convinced that is the way to go. It is our job to be prepared. We are vigilant.”
Contacts between the US Navy and Iranian craft in the Gulf region were routine, Fox said, referring to cases where his sailors helped Iranian ships that were in distress or threatened by pirates.
Attacks
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian military official said Monday that Tehran’s nuclear and other industrial facilities suffer periodic cyber attacks, but that the country has the technology to protect itself from the threat, an official news agency reported.
Iran considers itself to have been waging a complicated cyber war since 2010, when a virus known as Stuxnet disrupted controls of some nuclear centrifuges.
“Most enemy threats target nuclear energy sites as well as electronic trade and banking operations,” said Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads an Iranian military unit in charge of combatting sabotage.
Jalali said that in addition to Stuxnet, Iran has discovered two espionage viruses, Stars and Doku, but that the malware did no harm to Iran’s nuclear or industrial sites.
Iran says Stuxnet and other computer virus attacks are part of a concerted campaign by Israel, the US and their allies to undermine its nuclear program.
The US and its allies suspect Iran’s nuclear program aims to develop atomic weapons. Iran says its program is meant to produce fuel for future nuclear power reactors and medical radioisotopes needed for cancer patients.
Jalali was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities possess the technology and skills to deal with malicious software.
“Iranian experts possess adequate knowledge to confront cyber threats. All nuclear facilities in the country are immune from cyber attacks,” he said.
Iran has acknowledged that Stuxnet affected a limited number of its centrifuges - a key component in the production of nuclear fuel - at its main uranium enrichment facility in the central city of Natanz. But Tehran has said its scientists discovered and neutralized the malware before it could cause serious damage.
Iranian officials in April 2011 announced the discovery of Stars, which they said embedded itself in the file systems of government institutions and had the capability to cause minor damage.
Jalili described a third virus, Doku, which he said “only spies and gathers information.”
“Doku has not created any troubles for Iranian industrial organizations,” he said.
He said all three attacks had been stopped and the viruses cleaned up from Iranian systems. “Many viruses are produced in the world every day, and (Iran’s) cyberdefense headquarters monitors them. So far there has been no destructive impact inside the country,” he said.
Jalali heads a military unit called Passive Defense that primarily deals with countering sabotage. The unit was set up on the orders of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Resume
Meanwhile, a senior Chinese envoy on Monday urged Iran and world powers to quickly resume stalled talks over Tehran’s suspect nuclear programme, and called for better cooperation between the Islamic state and the UN nuclear watchdog.
Assistant foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu made the appeals at the end of a two-day visit to Tehran during which he spoke with Iran’s deputy nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri, Iranian state television reported.
Ma’s trip came amid heightened tensions between the West and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear activities, which the United States and its allies fear masks a drive for atomic weapons.
Increased Western economic sanctions on Iran in recent weeks and months have unsettled China, which is the biggest customer for Iranian oil.
Beijing has refused to follow a US and EU embargo on Iranian oil, though last month it reduced the amount it was importing, and it has held talks with other suppliers such as Saudi Arabia.
“It is now necessary for negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 group (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States) to resume as rapidly as possible, and for cooperation to be reinforced between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran and for both sides to find effective solutions to resolve their problems,” Ma said.
State television said the Chinese diplomat also expressed hope that Iran’s chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, would “send as soon as possible” a reply to an EU letter sent nearly four months ago opening the door to resuming the talks between Iran and the 5+1 group.
“The Iranian side said that Mr Jalili was soon going to send his response to the letter” from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, he said. “I think this is a positive signal from Iran.”
Bagheri was quoted as saying that Iran rejects the West’s “approach of dialogue and pressure, which leads to failure and an impasse.”
He said Iran wanted talks with world powers based on “dialogue and cooperation”.
Iran denies any military dimension to its nuclear programme, insisting it is purely for civilian uses.
The IAEA, though, in November issued a report saying Iran was engaged in activities that strongly suggested it was researching an atomic weapon and the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.
Israel, which views a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its survival, has warned it could attack Iranian nuclear sites.
The United States has not gone as far, though it maintains that “all options are on the table” in dealing with Iran.