Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy inaugurated its fifth naval base in the
Persian Gulf on Sunday in the southern port city of Bandar Lengeh on the Persian
Gulf coast.
IRGC Navy Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said that the new naval
zone, named Imam Mohammed Baqer, will cover a region in the strategically
important Strait of Hormuz encompassing several Persian Gulf islands, from Qeshm
Island to the waters west of Kish Island, according to Fars News, which is
closely affiliated to the IRGC.
The area includes the Greater and Lesser
Tunb Islands and Abu Musa, all three of which are part of a bitter sovereignty
dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Fadavi said the IRGC
has deployed missile and marine units within the new zone, which will provide
“operational coverage” for the islands within its operational range.
The
IRGC naval commander also accused Britain of trying to incite what he said was a
new “fitna,” or “sedition,” in the Persian Gulf, according to reports in Sepah
News, the IRGC’s official public relations website and Mashregh News, which is
closely affiliated to the IRGC.
Britain controlled Abu Musa and the Tunb
islands after 1908 until it transferred their administration to Sharjah, one of
the UAE’s seven emirates, in the 1960s. Iran stationed troops on the islands in
1971 and in 1992 asserted full control of the island.
On Saturday, the
UK’s Independent newspaper reported that the British government is expected to
hold talks with senior officials in the Gulf after growing concerns in Saudi
Arabia and the UAE that Iran could block the Strait of Hormuz.
Fadavi
said the new naval unit would hamper what he described as “English fitna” in the
Gulf.