Iran launched a submarine and a destroyer into the Gulf from Bandar Abbas port on Tuesday at the same time as US and allied navies held exercises in the same waters to practice keeping oil shipping lanes open. Tehran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a route for oil exports from the Gulf, if Iranian nuclear sites are attacked by Israel, which believes Tehran is trying to develop an atomic bomb.
The United States, Britain, France and a number of Middle Eastern states are conducting a naval exercise in the Gulf this week, focusing on how to clear mines that Tehran or guerilla groups might deploy to disrupt tanker traffic. Iran's refitted Tareq-901 submarine and Sahand destroyer were launched on the direct orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official IRNA news agency reported.
On the other side of the country, Khamenei visited the northern coastal city of Nowshahr on Tuesday to watch naval cadets practice planting mines, freeing hijacked ships, destroying enemy vessels and jumping from helicopters, his official website said. Iran's Tareq-class submarines are diesel-electric boats that were originally built in Russia in the early 1990s, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit organisation which focuses on security affairs.
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