TEHRAN, Dec 30, (Agencies): Iran will fire long-range missiles during a naval drill in the Gulf on Saturday, a semi-official news agency reported, a show of force at a time when Iran has threatened to close shipping lanes if the West imposes sanctions on its oil exports.
Iran threatened on Tuesday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if it became the target of an oil export embargo over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with countries dependent on Gulf oil.
“The Iranian navy will test several kinds of its missiles, including its long-range missiles, in the Gulf on Saturday,” Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, deputy commander of the Iranian navy, told Fars news agency.
During military drills in 2009, Iran test-fired its surface-to-surface Shahab-3 missile, said to be capable of reaching reach Israel and US bases in the Middle East.
Washington has expressed concern about Tehran’s missiles, which include the Shahab-3 strategic intermediate range ballistic missile with a range of up to 1,000 kms (625 miles), the Ghadr-1 with an estimated 1,600 km range and a Shahab-3 variant known as Sajjil-2 with a range of up to 2,400 km.
Iran began a 10-day naval drill in the Gulf last Saturday to show its resolve to counter any attack by foes such as Israel or the United States.
Iranian media have said the exercise differed from previous ones in terms of “the vastness of the area of action and the military equipment and tactics that are being employed”.
The United States and Israel have said they do not rule out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to resolve a dispute over the country’s nuclear programme, which Tehran says is peaceful but which the West says is a cover to build a bomb.
Iran has said it would respond to any attack by targeting US interests in the region and Israel, as well as by closing the Strait of Hormuz.
The US Navy, whose Fifth Fleet is based in the Gulf island of Bahrain, said it would not accept any Iranian disruption of the flow of oil in the strategic waterway.
“The firing of missiles is the final part of the navy drill,” said Mousavi. “The final phase of the drill is to prepare the navy for confronting the enemy in war situations.”
Navy commander Rear Admiral Ali Rastegari also said “medium-range, short-range missiles and smart torpedoes” would be test-fired.
Experts say Iran might be able to close the Hormuz Strait temporarily, but that such a move would damage its own economy.
Tensions with the West have risen since the UN nuclear watchdog reported on Nov. 8 that Iran appears to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be pursuing research to that end.
Iran denies this and says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity to meet growing domestic demand.
Tehran has been hit by four rounds of UN sanctions since 2006 as well as US and European Union sanctions over its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear work.
Some analysts say sanctions on Iran’s vital energy sector might push the clerical establishment to change its nuclear policy. Over 60 percent of state revenue is from crude exports and most of Iran’s petrol imports are shipped through Hormuz.
“Iranian leaders are worried about sanctions on oil exports ... That is why they are making such threats,” said analyst Hossein Kazemi. “Sanctions on oil income will paralyse the country.”
The Islamic Republic’s leadership has repeatedly brushed off the impact of sanctions on the oil-dependent economy.
Website
A website belonging to Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has criticised the current regime, has been shut down, his brother told the ISNA news agency on Friday.
“Yesterday (Thursday) evening, the company that provides the services made contact to tell us that they had been ordered to stop providing us the service,” Mohammed Hashemi was quoted as saying.
“Fifteen minutes later, the site was no longer accessible,” he added.
“We are going to see on Saturday who gave that order.”
He explained that Iran’s internet surveillance commission sent an email several days ago requesting that some of the content posted on the site be taken down, specifically speeches made by Rafsanjani during prayers.
Hashemi said the request was denied.
In 2009, following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial re-election, Rafsanjani delivered a speech after Friday prayers in Tehran that was widely criticised by conservatives.
As the country faced sweeping anti-regime protests, Rafsanjani called for the release of those who had been detained during the unrest and urged greater press freedom to help restore calm.
Following those comments, the ex-president was banned from making speeches at Friday prayers.
An influential cleric who currently heads the country’s top political arbitration body, Rafsanjani has faced harsh criticism from conservatives who demand that he condemn publicly opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
The cleric and former two-time president had indirectly supported Mousavi against Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election after he himself lost to the hardliner in 2005.
Rafsanjani in recent months has distanced himself from the opposition leaders and he condemned the last anti-government demonstrations staged by their supporters. But his stance has not satisfied the conservatives.
His daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, was last week summoned by a Tehran court to answer charges of making anti-regime propaganda.
She was was arrested and released after taking part in a number of protests which erupted after the 2009 election that saw Ahmadinejad returned to office amid opposition claims the vote was rigged.
A son of Rafsanjani’s, Mehdi Hashemi, has also been targeted by court action in Iran. He left the country more than two years ago and now lives in London.