Iran holds annual war games near Strait of Hormuz

Sep 10, 2020

Iran is holding three days of military drills near the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway, state media reported, amid heightened tensions with the United States over Washington’s push to reimpose international sanctions on Tehran.

The annual exercises, called Zolfaghar-99, involve naval, air and ground forces and are taking place in a 2-million-square-meter zone in the strategic waters, state news agency IRNA said.

“Implementation of tactical plans, pursuing tests of surface-to-surface cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles, rocket launchers, drones … are the main aim of the army maneuver to defend territorial waters,” said the IRNA.

The spokesman for the exercises, Adm. Shahram Irani, said the United States had pulled back its drones after warnings from Iran to leave the area.

The Strait of Hormuz, which is situated between Oman and Iran and through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, has been a source of US-Iran tensions. At a different military exercise near the waterway in late July, Iranian forces fired missiles at a replica of a US aircraft carrier.