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Coalition holds Gulf exercises to protect oil installations
Manama (AFP) July 8, 2008 US and allied navies on Tuesday wound up exercises in the Gulf, the US Fifth Fleet said, as Iran warned it would strike American interests in response to any attack over its nuclear programme. The Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said the five-day drill was aimed at protecting oil installations in the energy-rich region. Exercise Stake Net, involving ships from Britain, the United States, Bahrain and other regional navies sought to "protect key economic infrastructure in the central and southern" Gulf, the Fifth Fleet said in a statement. Its aim was to "practice the tactics and procedures of protecting maritime infrastructure, such as gas and oil installations," said Peter Hudson, commander of Combined Task Force 152 operating in the Gulf. Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Jane Campbell told AFP the exercise ended on Tuesday. "It was in the planning from months," she said when asked if the exercise was in response to tensions with Iran. An aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Tuesday that Tehran would "set on fire" Israel and the US navy in the Gulf as its first response to any American attack over its nuclear programme. "The first US shot on Iran would set the United States' vital interests in the world on fire," said Ali Shirazi, a mid-ranking cleric who is Khamenei's representative to the naval forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards. The United States and its top regional ally Israel have never ruled out attacking Iran over its nuclear drive, which the West fears could be aimed at making nuclear weapons. Shirazi's comments came as the Revolutionary Guards embarked on a new round of war games to sharpen their combat readiness. The Guards are responsible for Iran's most significant ballistic missiles including the Shahab-3 missile, whose range puts Israel and US bases in the Gulf within reach. Iran's army chief General Hassan Firouzabad warned on Saturday that the Islamic republic would shut down the Strait of Hormuz if it came under attack. The strait between Iran and Oman is a vital conduit for energy supplies, with as much as 40 percent of the world's crude passing through the strategic waterway. The former Fifth Fleet commander, Vice Admiral Kevin J. Cosgriff, has warned that Iran would not be allowed to close the Hormuz. Related Links Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Oil prices fall heavily as Iran tensions ease
New York (AFP) July 7, 2008Oil prices fell sharply Monday in a move some traders attributed to an ease in geopolitical tensions related to Iran's nuclear program and a strengthening US dollar. |
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