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Tuesday, December 11, 2007       Free Headline Alerts

Joint Chiefs: Iran running two navies in the Persian Gulf

WASHINGTON — The United States has determined that Iran is operating two navies in an effort to dominate the Gulf region.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff has assessed that Iran was using its conventional navy for patrols while reserving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for special operations, particularly sabotage. Both Iranian navies were said to have been operating in the Gulf, with plans to provide sole authorization to IRGC by 2011.

"It's got two navies, one's IRGC-led and the other is Iranian Navy," Adm. Mike Mullen chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "And, essentially [the plan is] to give the entire Gulf to the IRGC over the next four or five years."

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In a Nov. 28 lecture at the U.S. Army War College, Mullen termed "strategic" the Iranian decision to establish two navies. He suggested that the navies could overcome any of Iran's Gulf Arab neighbors.

"That's a big deal," Mullen said.

On Dec. 10, Mullen completed a visit to Israel in which Iran was said to have been the leading issue, Middle East Newsline reported. Mullen met Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi in what the chairman said was meant to highlight U.S. support for the Jewish state.

U.S. Central Command chief Adm. William Fallon said Iran has used its navies to destabilize the Gulf. Fallon cited Iran's weapons supply to insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the capture of British sailors in the Gulf in March 2007.

"Their behavior has really been a problem, and to the extent that it destabilizes the region, which it does, then it becomes a problem for us," Fallon said. "Everything they've done publicly has been a problem."

Officials said the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which asserted that Teheran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, has not prompted any revision in U.S. military thinking. They said Iran was still regarded as the leading threat in the Gulf region.

"We take the [NIE] on board as we look at the country of Iran," Lt. Gen. John Sattler, the Joint Staff's director of strategic plans and policy, said. "The Iranians have said officially they would not support nefarious activities — movements of weapons and materials into Iraq and Afghanistan."



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