Iran to hold large-scale war games

Revolutionary Guard deputy: Drill designed to "safeguard security."

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ahmadinejad parade 311 (photo credit: AP)
ahmadinejad parade 311
(photo credit: AP)
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps will begin large scale military maneuvers in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the country's state TV said Wednesday, a move likely to heighten tension at a time when the West is at a deepening standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.
The TV report quoted the Guard's deputy chief Hossein Salami as saying the war games in the Persian Gulf and Hormuz were designed to "safeguard security" in the region. It did not elaborate.
Salami said the three-day war games due to start Thursday will also seek to demonstrate Iran's role in a waterway through which some 40 percent of the world oil and energy supply passes.
Iran had in the past threatened to close the strait if attacked.
It came as a broad swath of prominent European intellectuals and politicians, crisscrossing Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, were slated to announce that the Revolutionary Guard should be put on the European Union terror list.