Iranian vessels fully cover Persian Gulf

A senior military commander says the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) can now cover the expanse of the Persian Gulf waters with its new fleet of high-speed vessels.

“Today, on the first stage of the war games, the IRGC successfully covered the expanse of the Persian Gulf waters using native high-speed boats,” Rear Admiral Ali-Reza Tangsiri, commander of the First Marine Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, told Fars news agency on Thursday.

Tangsiri was commenting on the first day of a three-day IRGC drill that kicked off across the Persian Gulf on Thursday. The Great Prophet 5 maneuver will continue until Saturday.

He noted that the engineering body of the IRGC has manufactured all the weapons and military equipment that are being used in the war games.

“The chief aim of the drill is to ensure the security of the strategic Strait of Hormuz and to keep it permanently open,” he added.

The Iranian commander said the Strait of Hormuz belongs to the Persian Gulf states, and for that reason, foreign countries should not be allowed to meddle in the region’s internal affairs.