October 05, 2018
The chairman of the Joint Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad-Hossain Baqeri, the highest ranking officer in the Iranian military, says vessels are having smooth sailing in the Strait of Hormuz because the warships of foreign navies are obeying the orders issued by the Pasdar maritime arm.
“Thanks to the preparedness and capabilities of the Pasdaran, the hostile states have felt anxious before entering the Strait of Hormuz and acted upon international rules in the past year. If they make a move outside [these rules], they would face the Pasdar Navy’s countering and controlling measures,” General Baqeri told a forum in Mashhad.
He described the Persian Gulf as Iran’s home and the “enemies” as uninvited guests, and said, “We never overlook the enemy’s new strategies and always monitor them.”
Actually, the official monitoring of passages through the strait is handled by a center in Oman that watches over the strait and maintains radio communications with all ships passing through it.
Baqeri said, “The enemies should know that the Persian Gulf is such an inappropriate place for their wars and clashes that when an unwise person in the US orders war, even their experts say that they do not have the power to confront the Islamic Republic of Iran.” He did not name any such “experts.”
His remarks appeared to come in reaction to a tweet by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz, after an Iranian official again made such a claim.
Pompeo wrote, “The Islamic Republic of Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is an international waterway. The United States will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways.”