The United States and twenty other countries in September will lead a major multinational exercise mine near the Gulf, a few months after threats of blocking the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, said Tuesday the Pentagon .
The exercise, dubbed a symposium will be held from September 16 to 27 and will involve "more than 20 countries" that have not been specified, according to the Pentagon spokesman George Little.
This is according to him a "defensive exercise to maintain freedom of navigation in international waters in the Middle East."
"This is not an exercise to deliver a message to Iran", he has defended. However, since the beginning of the year, Washington has stepped up public signs of a military build in the region against Iran.
The United States and deployed a naval base afloat, the USS Ponce, for providing logistical support in mine action. They doubled, bringing to eight the number of minesweepers present in the Gulf, and four helicopters deployed MH-53 Sea Stallion of fight against mines and underwater drones.
Two U.S. aircraft carriers, their escorts and 80 airplanes and helicopters that everyone wins, also continue to cruise in the Gulf or nearby.
Iran has not failed Tuesday to argue that the U.S. military presence in the Gulf was "a source of insecurity" after a U.S. military vessel opened fire yesterday on a civilian ship off the United Arab Emirates .
The scenario of the multinational exercise, dubbed IMCMEX 12, "focuses on the hypothetical threat posed by an extremist organization to undermine the international waters of the strategic Middle East, including the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, "says a statement from the Centcom, the U.S. command for the Middle East.
The exercise itself does not take place in the Strait of Hormuz, which closes the Gulf, says the Centcom.
Iran has an arsenal of about 2,000 sea mines that can be dropped by the dozen submarines or the many speedboats available Tehran.
No comments:
Post a Comment