The Iranian navy began a three-day exercise in the Sea of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, deploying an array of warships, drones, and missiles.
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All tagged security
◢ Spooked by the prospect of a catastrophic war with Iran and its proxy militias across the region, Arab monarchies are in the midst of a strategic rethink regarding the Persian Gulf. The U.A.E., whose economic model relies in large part on its international links, quickly realized it had most to lose from a military escalation.
◢ Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pitched the Islamic Republic's Persian Gulf security plan to neighboring nations on Thursday. Zarif said that the plan, named Hormuz Peace Endeavor, offered the chance of "expansive security" and cooperation between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.
◢ President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday denounced the presence of foreign forces in the Persian Gulf and said Iran will present a peace plan, after its arch-foe Washington ordered reinforcements to the tense region. "Foreign forces can cause problems and insecurity for our people and for our region," Rouhani said before a military parade commemorating the Iran-Iraq war.
◢ French security services believe the Iranian intelligence ministry was behind a foiled bomb plot that aimed to target an opposition group in Paris in June, a diplomatic source told AFP. "The head of operations at the intelligence ministry ordered it," the source said on condition of anonymity, referring to an alleged plot to bomb a meeting of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) in a Paris suburb.
◢ Iran's supreme leader on Monday said the attackers who killed 24 people at a weekend military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz were funded by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. "Based on reports, this cowardly act was the work of those very individuals who are rescued by the Americans whenever they are in trouble and who are funded by the Saudis and the (United) Arab Emirates," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, in remarks posted on his official website.
◢ The Iranian military's behavior in the Gulf has changed "across the board" in recent months, the US Navy said on Thursday, after years of tensions in the busy waterway. Last year and in 2016, the US Navy complained repeatedly about the behaviour of Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels, which would often shadow and steer towards US ships.
