While yesterday Saudi Arabia and Kuwait "reafirmed their ownership" of the three small but oil rich and strategic Islands, the IRGC sais it was about to start military manuvers on the Abu Musa Island.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) launched a military exercise on Abu Musa Island, one of three disputed islands claimed by the UAE.

The IRGC Navy and the Basij militia took part in the war game on the deployment of combat forces. It included inaugurating new boats and launching cruise missiles and drones.

The exercise aims to show “the power and combat defense readiness of the IRGC Navy in protecting the security of the Gulf ... and ... islands and it includes the use of “locally manufactured equipment and systems in the defense-based industries.”

In this exercise, the vessels of the special unit of Martyr Hojjaji that are equipped with 600-km long-range missiles were taking part to defend the island's territory, said Tasnim news agency.

Hojjaji is the name of an IRGC members who was killed in Syria.

The news agency gave no details about the missiles.

IRGC-affiliated media reported that the exercise is dubbed "Eshaq Dara" after a commander who was killed in clashes with the US forces during the Tanker War in the Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War.

The drill focused on Abu Musa Island and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs which are near the Straits of Hormuz.

Iranian media released footage and images as part of the propaganda that usually goes hand in hand with military exercises.

The commander-in-chief of the IRGC, Major General Hossein Salami, and the IRGC Navy's commander, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, headed to Musa Island ahead of the maneuvers.

“We always try for security and tranquility; it is our way,” Salami, said in a televised address during the drill.

“Our nation is vigilant, and it gives harsh responses to all threats, complicated seditions, and secret scenarios and hostilities.”

Salami considered that all “the riots, divisions, and tensions are the outcome of US policy and the Zionist entity.”

"The islands ... are part of Iran's honor, and we will defend them," Tangsiri said, adding that Gulf security needed to be provided by regional countries.

The “Gulf belongs to all of the region's countries ... These states must be very prudent and prevent themselves from falling into the conspiracies and divisive plans of extra-regional countries," he added.

Tasnim quoted Brigadier General Ali Ozmaei, the Commander of the IRGC Navy, as saying that 1,500 members including 30 men from the Basij militia were deployed in the military exercise.

"In this exercise, Basiji fighters were quickly dispatched to Abu Musa Island by aircraft and light and heavy vessels to defend the Island, and after being transported by air and sea, the fighters were deployed in predetermined positions to defend the Island," Ozmaei added.

He went on to say that 50 soldiers participated in the training on “air assault” with helicopters, remarking the use of air and sea drones, launchers and missile launchers, and Zulfiqar boats carrying missiles on board.

Meanwhile, Iran has been trying to signal its displeasure with recent comments about the islands made by Russia.

Russia earlier this summer in a joint statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council called for "bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice" to decide who should control the islands.

Last month, the United States sent additional F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, along with a warship to the Middle East, in a bid to monitor waterways in the region following Iran's seizure of commercial shipping vessels in recent months.

The Pentagon dispatched the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan to the Gulf to protect navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Source: Asharq al Awsat