Iran replaces its navy, hands Gulf operation over to elite IRGC
NICOSIA — Iran has granted the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
control over naval operations in the Gulf.
The Teheran regime announced the transfer of command from the Iranian
Navy to IRGC, which has confronted the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, on Sept. 16. Under the announcement, IRGC would be the sole
Iranian force in the Gulf.
"Responsibility for defending the Persian Gulf has been handed over to
the naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps," former IRGC
commander Gen. Rahim Yahya Safavi, a military adviser to Iranian supreme
leader Ali Khamenei, said.
Officials said IRGC was given the lead role in Gulf operations in 2007.
They said the latest decision would remove the Iranian Navy from the Gulf.
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IRGC was said to have confronted the U.S. Navy in the Strait of Hormuz
in late 2007 and 2008. The U.S. Navy has assessed that IRGC was testing its
swarm strategy designed to overpower much larger Western warships.
"Our armed forces with their defense equipment including missile, air,
naval and torpedo capabilities are able to control the Strait of Hormuz,"
Safavi said.
Officials said IRGC has a fleet of 500 fast speedboats. They said the
speedboats would be used in maritime security missions in the Gulf and Sea
of Oman.
"Any hostile targets throughout the Persian Gulf and all warships
passing through the Iranian southern waterway are within the reach of IRGC
missiles," Safavi said.