January 10, 2020
Russia, China and Iran held a joint naval exercise in the waters south of Iran last month, an event the Islamic Republic sought to portray as a major development of huge political and military significance.
China and Russia, however, played the whole event down.
The Islamic Republic was clearly trying to convince the Iranian public that Iran is not alone in the world and that major powers, Russia and China, support it in what it is doing.
The Mehr news agency said, “The joint maneuvers with China and Russia can be considered one of the greatest achievements of Iran’s diplomacy.” One wag commented, “If that’s so, it doesn’t say much about Iran’s diplomacy.”
Military and naval maneuvers between countries are normal and routine and mainly demonstrate an absence of hostility among the participants, not a close alliance.
Russia and China have each held naval maneuvers before with Iran. The only thing new about this one was that they were drilling jointly with Iran for all of four days.
Iran portrayed the maneuvers as some major development that showed China and Russia adding their military power in support of Iran. But China sent only one ship, which promptly sailed back to the Pacific after the maneuvers. Russia sent three ships from its Baltic Fleet, which also returned home—and far, far from Iran—after the exercise ended. Iran had six ships engaged in the exercise, three of which were not combat vessels. It was not a major exercize—and, according to Iran’s own description, it did not involve major combat practices.
Rear Admiral Gholam-Reza Tahani, the deputy chief for operations, told reporters the joint exercises sent the message that “Iran cannot be isolated” and that its relations with Russia and China are stable and improving. “This naval exercise means that relations among Iran, Russia and China have reached a meaningful level and this trend will continue in future years.”
Ariane Tabatabai of the RAND Corporation in the United States, who has written a book about Iran’s relations with China and Russia, told National Public Radio, “It’s really interesting, actually, observing both Russia and China trying to downplay what’s going on there. They’re obviously trying to project power to show that they’re a force to be reckoned with in the region. But, at the same time, they’re trying to reassure Iranian rivals—Saudi Arabia, Israel—that they’re not there to take sides, that they’re not there to kind of go against Israeli or Saudi interests. And also, they’re trying to make sure that the United States doesn’t see this as an offensive action.”
The drills were standard stuff—firing at pre-determined targets, practicing rescue operations, countering burning fires on shipboard—as announced by Iran.
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, former commander of the Iranian Navy now promoted to deputy chief of the joint staff, huffed and puffed about US plans to spy on the maneuvers. “We will hit whatever spying craft sails in the war game zone,” he said, “watercraft or aircraft, as we have proved in the past that we have such a capability.”
Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, the current commander of Iran’s Navy later said the Americans tried to interfere with the exercise. “The Americans and their allies held an extraordinary meeting whose aim was disturbing our wargames with our two allies. [Neither China nor Russia is an “ally” of Iran.] But we foiled their plot by deception operations.” He said all the Americans could do was spy on the drills with drones.
But Iran never fired on anyone. Iran has a right to hold drills in international waters and anyone else has a right to observe them because they are in international waters.
At the end of the drills, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, commander of the Navy, proclaimed, “They [the Americans] will for sure be expelled from various marine areas of the world.” He didn’t explain what that was supposed to mean since the US Navy, just like the Iranian Navy, enjoys freedom of the seas under international law.
Even President Rohani spoke about the naval maneuvers, portraying them as a huge development. “Holding such drills is not a simple issue and has made the predatory countries very angry. They are upset and outraged at the fact that two major powers [China and Russia] have staged joint maneuvers with Iran.”
Pasdar spokesman Brig. Gen. Ramazan Sharif said the maneuvers caused “fear and horror” among those countries attempting to undermine security in the region.
The United States has not said anything about the maneuvers.