IRAN, Russia, and China have kicked off joint military drills in the north of the Indian Ocean, with vessels from the three countries hitting pre-determined targets at sea.
The ‘2022 Marine Security Belt’ exercise, which began on Friday morning, marks the third of such joint exercises between the three countries.
‘Together for peace and security’ is the theme of the exercise, which covers an area of 17,000 square kilometres and includes both navies from Iran’s Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), as well as the Russian and Chinese naval forces.
A variety of tactical exercises such as rescuing burning vessels, releasing hijacked vessels, shooting at specific targets, shooting at air targets at night, and other tactical and operational exercises are expected to be carried out during the drills.
Strengthening the security of international maritime trade, combating piracy and maritime terrorism, exchanging intelligence in the field of maritime rescue missions, and exchanging operational and tactical experience are among the objectives of the 2022 Marine Security Belt exercise.
‘At this stage of the exercise, the vessels units of Iran, China, and Russia, under the command of the (fully homegrown) Iranian destroyer Jamaran, fired from 20mm calibre weapons at pre-determined surface targets at sea,’ Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajoddini, spokesman for the naval drill, said on Friday.
‘Also, in the next stage, the ‘PHOTOEX’ exercise, including the formulation and offensive arrangement of the units participating in the exercise, was carried out in accordance with the threats in the region,’ he added.
Tajoddi said Iran’s presence in international coalitions manifests the improvement of the Islamic Republic’s standing in the world.
He said Iran attaches great importance to the establishment of security at regional and international levels, adding, ‘That’s why the naval forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow any threat in the maritime field.’
A day earlier, Tajoddini said the purpose of the drill was to strengthen security in the region, expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries, and create a maritime community with a common future.
Meanwhile, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said the exercise in the Persian Gulf is a show of force by the regional powers against foreigners.
Today is the sixth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy’s capture of two American navy ships in the Persian Gulf.
‘Since foreign countries are always looking for insecurity in the region, holding this exercise will definitely send a good message to foreigners,’ Fada-Hossein Maleki told Fars news agency.
He warned the US and Israel that they must not have an eye on the region’s resources.
The Americans, as usual, have failed against Iran, Maleki said.
‘The Americans formed an alliance with NATO and invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, achieving nothing but destruction in the region after almost 20 years. Therefore, these alliances have no place in the region,’ the lawmaker said.
‘The formation of a naval coalition in the Persian Gulf by the Americans will face the same fate that the previous ones did, because there is a powerful military force in the Persian Gulf like Iran,’ he added.
- Russia says the United States has promised to provide the Kremlin with a written response to its security demands, after ‘frank’ talks between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Geneva, Switzerland.
After the talks on the crisis over Ukraine, Lavrov said on Friday that they ‘ended up with an agreement that we will receive written responses to all our proposals next week’.
After receiving the US response to its demands, according to Lavrov, another diplomatic meeting would be held ‘on our level’.
Lavrov said that the talks with Blinken had been ‘frank’.
‘Antony Blinken agreed that we need to have a reasonable dialogue, and I hope emotions will decrease,’ he added.
In mid-December, Russia spelled out an array of security guarantees that it said it wanted Washington and its NATO allies to commit to, in an attempt to defuse the escalation of tensions over Ukraine.
The Kremlin has repeatedly reiterated its demand for security guarantees – including a permanent ban on Ukraine joining NATO – to be taken seriously, but Washington has not responded yet.
The US, its NATO allies, and Ukraine have accused Moscow of amassing troops near Ukraine’s border for a possible invasion. Russia has said there is no such plan.
The Kremlin says the US president’s warnings of disastrous consequences will not help reduce rising tensions over Ukraine.
Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow had ‘never’ threatened ‘the Ukrainian people’ but it was concerned ‘not about imaginary threats but about real facts’, including the sending of Western arms and military instructors to Ukraine.
The US, however, kept threatening Russia with ‘severe costs’ in the event of military action against Ukraine. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that ‘a disaster’ would befall Moscow if President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.
Russia said in response that the threats would not help defuse the rising tensions. It said Washington was involved in aggressive moves in the Black Sea, where Ukraine and the US have held military drills recently.
- As multilateral negotiations to bring the US into full compliance with the 2015 agreement continue, Russia’s lead negotiator to the Vienna talks says his country rejects ‘artificial deadlines’ set by Western parties after their meeting with the US.
‘The #JCPOA participants (without #Iran) and the US met to assess the state of affairs at the #ViennaTalks,’ Mikhail Ulyanov wrote in a tweet on Friday.
‘The Western colleagues, as they do it publicly, underlined the need to finalise negotiations ASAP. Russia shares the sense of urgency but is against artificial deadlines,’ he added.
Iran and the other participants to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the 2015 Iran agreement, have been holding talks in the Austrian capital since April last year with the aim of reviving the deal by bringing the US into full compliance.
The US left the JCPOA in May 2018 under former president Donald Trump. The Vienna talks began on a promise by Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, to rejoin the deal and repeal the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran.
Biden, however, has so far failed to undo Trump’s own undoing of Barack Obama’s Iran policy, which led to the JCPOA in June 2015.
In response to the US withdrawal, Iran began to reduce its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA in 2019.
The Iranian foreign minister says Tehran has no intention to play with time or derail the sanctions removal talks in Vienna.
Tehran maintains that it will reverse its nuclear measures once the US – the main culprit behind the failure of the JCPOA – removes its sanctions and abides by all of its contractual commitments in practice.
The Islamic Republic has also rejected the pessimistic assessment of the talks by the US and the European trio – namely France, Britain, and Germany – as a psychological ploy to win concessions.
Last Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed ‘fabricated deadlines’ set by the US and its European allies.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the US would better focus on its Plan A rather than threatening Iran with a Plan B.
Days earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said there were only ‘a few weeks left’ to save the 2015 deal.
‘We’re very, very short on time,’ because ‘Iran is getting closer and closer to the point where they could produce on very, very short order enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon,’ Blinken claimed.
In the course of the Vienna talks, Russia and China have supported Iran’s position while the European parties to the deal have thrown their weight behind Washington, as they try to pressure Tehran into accepting terms dictated by the White House.
‘China and Russia support Iran’s constructive plan, but Western countries, including the United States, have so far offered no innovative proposals in the talks,’ Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in an interview with the CGTN published last Monday.
Amir-Abdollahian made clear that ‘if the parties can resume their commitments under the Iran deal, Iran will also return to commitments based on the agreement’.
He added: ‘If Iran can get the expected economic benefits from the agreement, so will all the parties.’IRAN, Russia, and China have kicked off joint military drills in the north of the Indian Ocean, with vessels from the three countries hitting pre-determined targets at sea.
The ‘2022 Marine Security Belt’ exercise, which began on Friday morning, marks the third of such joint exercises between the three countries.
‘Together for peace and security’ is the theme of the exercise, which covers an area of 17,000 square kilometres and includes both navies from Iran’s Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), as well as the Russian and Chinese naval forces.
A variety of tactical exercises such as rescuing burning vessels, releasing hijacked vessels, shooting at specific targets, shooting at air targets at night, and other tactical and operational exercises are expected to be carried out during the drills.
Strengthening the security of international maritime trade, combating piracy and maritime terrorism, exchanging intelligence in the field of maritime rescue missions, and exchanging operational and tactical experience are among the objectives of the 2022 Marine Security Belt exercise.
‘At this stage of the exercise, the vessels units of Iran, China, and Russia, under the command of the (fully homegrown) Iranian destroyer Jamaran, fired from 20mm calibre weapons at pre-determined surface targets at sea,’ Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajoddini, spokesman for the naval drill, said on Friday.
‘Also, in the next stage, the ‘PHOTOEX’ exercise, including the formulation and offensive arrangement of the units participating in the exercise, was carried out in accordance with the threats in the region,’ he added.
Tajoddi said Iran’s presence in international coalitions manifests the improvement of the Islamic Republic’s standing in the world.
He said Iran attaches great importance to the establishment of security at regional and international levels, adding, ‘That’s why the naval forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow any threat in the maritime field.’
A day earlier, Tajoddini said the purpose of the drill was to strengthen security in the region, expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries, and create a maritime community with a common future.
Meanwhile, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said the exercise in the Persian Gulf is a show of force by the regional powers against foreigners.
Today is the sixth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy’s capture of two American navy ships in the Persian Gulf.
‘Since foreign countries are always looking for insecurity in the region, holding this exercise will definitely send a good message to foreigners,’ Fada-Hossein Maleki told Fars news agency.
He warned the US and Israel that they must not have an eye on the region’s resources.
The Americans, as usual, have failed against Iran, Maleki said.
‘The Americans formed an alliance with NATO and invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, achieving nothing but destruction in the region after almost 20 years. Therefore, these alliances have no place in the region,’ the lawmaker said.
‘The formation of a naval coalition in the Persian Gulf by the Americans will face the same fate that the previous ones did, because there is a powerful military force in the Persian Gulf like Iran,’ he added.
- Russia says the United States has promised to provide the Kremlin with a written response to its security demands, after ‘frank’ talks between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Geneva, Switzerland.
After the talks on the crisis over Ukraine, Lavrov said on Friday that they ‘ended up with an agreement that we will receive written responses to all our proposals next week’.
After receiving the US response to its demands, according to Lavrov, another diplomatic meeting would be held ‘on our level’.
Lavrov said that the talks with Blinken had been ‘frank’.
‘Antony Blinken agreed that we need to have a reasonable dialogue, and I hope emotions will decrease,’ he added.
In mid-December, Russia spelled out an array of security guarantees that it said it wanted Washington and its NATO allies to commit to, in an attempt to defuse the escalation of tensions over Ukraine.
The Kremlin has repeatedly reiterated its demand for security guarantees – including a permanent ban on Ukraine joining NATO – to be taken seriously, but Washington has not responded yet.
The US, its NATO allies, and Ukraine have accused Moscow of amassing troops near Ukraine’s border for a possible invasion. Russia has said there is no such plan.
The Kremlin says the US president’s warnings of disastrous consequences will not help reduce rising tensions over Ukraine.
Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow had ‘never’ threatened ‘the Ukrainian people’ but it was concerned ‘not about imaginary threats but about real facts’, including the sending of Western arms and military instructors to Ukraine.
The US, however, kept threatening Russia with ‘severe costs’ in the event of military action against Ukraine. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that ‘a disaster’ would befall Moscow if President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.
Russia said in response that the threats would not help defuse the rising tensions. It said Washington was involved in aggressive moves in the Black Sea, where Ukraine and the US have held military drills recently.
- As multilateral negotiations to bring the US into full compliance with the 2015 agreement continue, Russia’s lead negotiator to the Vienna talks says his country rejects ‘artificial deadlines’ set by Western parties after their meeting with the US.
‘The #JCPOA participants (without #Iran) and the US met to assess the state of affairs at the #ViennaTalks,’ Mikhail Ulyanov wrote in a tweet on Friday.
‘The Western colleagues, as they do it publicly, underlined the need to finalise negotiations ASAP. Russia shares the sense of urgency but is against artificial deadlines,’ he added.
Iran and the other participants to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the 2015 Iran agreement, have been holding talks in the Austrian capital since April last year with the aim of reviving the deal by bringing the US into full compliance.
The US left the JCPOA in May 2018 under former president Donald Trump. The Vienna talks began on a promise by Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, to rejoin the deal and repeal the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran.
Biden, however, has so far failed to undo Trump’s own undoing of Barack Obama’s Iran policy, which led to the JCPOA in June 2015.
In response to the US withdrawal, Iran began to reduce its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA in 2019.
The Iranian foreign minister says Tehran has no intention to play with time or derail the sanctions removal talks in Vienna.
Tehran maintains that it will reverse its nuclear measures once the US – the main culprit behind the failure of the JCPOA – removes its sanctions and abides by all of its contractual commitments in practice.
The Islamic Republic has also rejected the pessimistic assessment of the talks by the US and the European trio – namely France, Britain, and Germany – as a psychological ploy to win concessions.
Last Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed ‘fabricated deadlines’ set by the US and its European allies.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the US would better focus on its Plan A rather than threatening Iran with a Plan B.
Days earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said there were only ‘a few weeks left’ to save the 2015 deal.
‘We’re very, very short on time,’ because ‘Iran is getting closer and closer to the point where they could produce on very, very short order enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon,’ Blinken claimed.
In the course of the Vienna talks, Russia and China have supported Iran’s position while the European parties to the deal have thrown their weight behind Washington, as they try to pressure Tehran into accepting terms dictated by the White House.
‘China and Russia support Iran’s constructive plan, but Western countries, including the United States, have so far offered no innovative proposals in the talks,’ Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in an interview with the CGTN published last Monday.
Amir-Abdollahian made clear that ‘if the parties can resume their commitments under the Iran deal, Iran will also return to commitments based on the agreement’.
He added: ‘If Iran can get the expected economic benefits from the agreement, so will all the parties.’
