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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

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.


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