Iran holds military exercises near strategic Strait of Hormuz

Iran held joint naval, air, and ground exercises in the Gulf on Friday, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway, local media reported.

The annual drill in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman, dubbed operation "Zolfaghar-1401", featured commandos, airborne infantry, drones, fighter jets, helicopters, military transport aircraft and submarines.

The Hormuz strait is crucial to global energy supplies, with about a fifth of all oil traded at sea passing through it.

The manoeuvres aim to "improve readiness in confronting foreign threats and any possible invasion", state TV reported. 

Tehran has long opposed the presence of US and western navies in the area, which it sees as a threat to its national security. 

The drills involve submarines and drones "practising information-gathering operations against attacking forces, as well as reconnaissance operations", Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told the official IRNA news agency.

Sayyari also called for foreign forces to leave the region "so that regional countries can establish stability and peace in their neighbourhood", the English-language state-run Press TV reported.

The military drills will also remind states in the region of Iran's military capabilities, said Sayyari, warning that the presence of foreign countries in western Asia has brought insecurity, war and occupation to the region. 

The Iranian army held Zulfaqar 1,400 drills in November 2021.

Addressing reporters on the sideline of the drills, Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid, a senior military commander, also spoke against the threat Israel poses to the region, calling it "a military and security threat to all regional countries and Iran".

While Iran regularly holds such drills to improve its defensive power and test weapons, the latest exercise comes at a time when the country is experiencing economic and political turmoil. 

Iran has been swept by more than three months of protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September after she was arrested for allegedly wearing her headscarf "improperly".