WASHINGTON—Iran began a major naval exercise near the Strait of Hormuz Thursday, in an apparent response to rhetoric from President Donald Trump in recent days that he would ratchet up pressure against Tehran, U.S. defense officials said. The U.S. believes the exercises “fully started” Thursday, one defense official said, and could continue until Aug. 6. A second official said there are more than 100 boats and ships participating in the exercise, but most are considered smaller craft. On Thursday, the U.S. saw boats going in and out of port, the first defense official said. An air component, consisting primarily of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are also are participating in the exercise, a military official said. Alireza Miryousefi, press counselor for Iran’s United Nations mission, didn’t respond directly to questions about the military exercise, but pointed to a Twitter post written Thursday by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif criticizing the U.S. Navy for referring to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf and for patrolling waters “in our backyard.” President Trump, in a July 22 Twitter post written in capital letters, warned of dire repercussions if Iran threatened the U.S. “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,” Mr. Trump wrote. The annual exercise appears to have been moved up on the Iranian calendar by several days, reinforcing the view that it is a response to Mr. Trump’s recent comments. Some officials in the U.S. military believe the Iranians are simply trying to send a message that if Tehran wanted to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route that links the Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea and ultimately, the Indian Ocean, it could do so. “We’re watching it pretty closely,” said a military official. On Monday, during a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Mr. Trump appeared to extend an olive branch to Iran, saying he would meet its leaders with “no preconditions.” Iran rejected that proposal. The U.S. naval presence in the region currently is somewhat below levels that have been considered normal for the area in recent years. There is no aircraft carrier strike group after the USS Harry S. Truman left the region last month. In recent weeks, the most prominent U.S. naval presence in the Middle East was the amphibious warship Iwo Jima, which arrived in the Persian Gulf last month and has since left. Last month, the U.S. Navy quietly deployed the three-ship Essex Amphibious Ready Group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which will operate in both the Middle East and the Western Pacific. Write to Gordon Lubold at Gordon.Lubold@wsj.com and Nancy A. Youssef at nancy.youssef@wsj.com<doc-sep>(CNN) — Iran said its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held a naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz last week “within the framework of their annual training program.” The exercise was held with aim of “controlling and maintaining the security of the international waterway of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and to proportionately counter any threats by the enemy,” semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. “Operation was part of IRGC’s annual training program,” Tasnim said. It said it included naval and aerospace units, and was described as “successful” by IRGC Chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Ja’fari, Iran’s actions in the globally significant waterway raised concerns last week after a US assessment found IRGC assembled a fleet of more than 100 boats and hundreds of Iranian troops were expected to participate. CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson witnessed more than 100 oil tankers anchored in the Gulf of Oman on Friday, waiting to enter the strait and load up with oil. US officials said the major naval exercise was meant to demonstrate Iran’s ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which would have ripple effects across the globe. The strait connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. The US Energy Information Administration calls it “the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint,” with 20% of oil traded worldwide moving through the waterway, which is about 30 miles wide at its narrowest point. The US military has been trying to encourage other nations in the region, especially Saudi Arabia, to take a strong line on keeping the Gulf open in the face of rising Iranian rhetoric. They have also expressed concern about keeping open the waterways off Yemen where Iranian-backed rebels have attacked oil tankers. The Iranian military maneuvers are normally held later in the year and heavily publicized by Iran, Robertson reported. But this year’s exercise was timed to take place as US prepares to reimpose sanctions on Iran after President Donald Trump pulled out of Iran nuclear deal. Outrage by Iran’s leaders when Trump took the decision in May is now being supercharged by small street protests against the government over the economy and the threat of more as the situation worsens. The Iranian riyal is down 25% against the dollar. Monday, US sanctions will kick in, banning the purchase of US dollars, gold and other precious metals, and in early November oil, shipping and ports will be hit by the second phase of the same sanctions. Hardship is coming to Iran. Hormuz is the place they can transfer that pain to the rest of the world. CNN’s Sarah El Sirgany contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Washington (AFP) - Iran launched a naval exercise in the Gulf on Thursday, just days before the US reimposes sanctions on Tehran, a defense official told AFP. The timing of the exercise is unusual, as it appears to be similar in scale and nature to a drill that ordinarily happens later in the autumn. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several dozen boats were out training early Thursday morning. The vessels are mostly small attack boats, and there have been no interactions with US ships in the area, the official added. In a statement, Captain Bill Urban, the military's Central Command spokesman, said the US was "aware of an increase" in Iranian naval operations in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. "We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," Urban said. The exercises come at a time of increased tension between Iran and the United States, which has pulled out of a historic nuclear pact and is slapping fresh sanctions on Tehran on Monday. US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf. But so far this year, to the befuddlement of some military officials, there have been no such incidents. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is a paramilitary force that answers directly to the Islamic republic's supreme leader. In January 2016, the Iranians briefly captured the crew of two small US patrol boats that strayed into Iranian waters. The 10 US sailors were released 24 hours later.<doc-sep>Iran has launched major naval exercises in the Persian Gulf just days before the United States is due to start reimposing sanctions on Tehran, according to media reports citing U.S. officials. One U.S. official told Reuters on August 2 that possibly more than 100 vessels are involved in the drills, in a move that appears designed to send a message to Washington. A U.S. official told AFP that the vessels are mostly small attack boats and that there have been no interactions with U.S. ships in the area thus far. The timing of the drills is unusual, as Iran's navy usually conducts annual exercises in the autumn, the officials said. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated since U.S. President Donald Trump announced in May that he was pulling out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers and reimposing sanctions on Tehran. The first batch of renewed U.S. sanctions is due to go into effect on August 7. The looming threat of sanctions is already putting significant pressure on the Iranian economy. Iran's currency fell to new record lows this week, helping to spark street protests in several Iranian cities. Hundreds of people were reported rallying in Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, Mashhad, and Ahvaz to protest high inflation caused in part by the weak rial. The plummeting currency, which leads to higher prices for imported goods, has been fueling sporadic protests since the beginning of the year. Some protests also have focused on water shortages, power cuts, and alleged corruption in the government. With tensions rising, U.S. and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf have also gone on heightened alert. Washington has made clear that the sanctions are aimed at choking off Iran's oil exports, which are an important driver of the country's economic growth and must flow through the Gulf to reach global markets. The United States has not threatened to use military means to cut off Iran's oil exports, but it has ratcheted up financial sanctions and put pressure on Iran's global customers in Europe and Asia to stop importing its oil. Senior Iranian officials have warned that they will fight the U.S. efforts to cut off the country's oil exports. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has warned that it might retaliate against any attempt to block Iranian oil exports by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic artery not only for Iran's exports but for the oil exports of other Persian Gulf nations like Kuwait and Iraq. The U.S. military's Central Command said on August 1 that it has seen an increase in Iranian naval activity, including in the Strait of Hormuz. "We are monitoring it closely and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," said Navy Captain Bill Urban, the chief spokesman at Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East. U.S. officials told the media that the increased Iranian naval operations in the Gulf to date have not affected commercial maritime activity. Iranian authorities have not commented on the increased activity detected by the Pentagon. With reporting by AFP and Reuters<doc-sep>
(CNN) — Iran has begun a major military exercise in the Persian Gulf region according to a US defense official directly familiar with the latest US information. The “exercise is underway,” and the US assesses the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has deployed “dozens” of small boats in the initial phase. The exercise is taking place in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. While Iran has not widely publicized the exercise, the US military is concerned it could demonstrate Iran’s ability to interfere with commercial shipping and shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial conduit for global energy supplies, US officials say. The timing is unusual. These types of IRGC exercises typically happen much later in the year and the official said the US assesses that the exercise is partly being held in response to rising rhetoric from the US. The official said it’s not clear if the timing of the exercise is tied to the US only having one warship inside the Gulf at this time. US military commanders are “monitoring the situation closely” a second official said. Additional US Navy ships are expected to move the Strait of Hormuz and into the Gulf in the coming days officials say. The US military has been trying to encourage other nations in the region, especially Saudi Arabia, to take a strong line on keeping the Gulf open in the face of rising Iranian rhetoric. They have also expressed concern about keeping open the waterways off Yemen where Iranian-backed rebels have attacked oil tankers. “Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. They’ve done that previously in years past. They saw the international community put – dozens of nations of the international community put their naval forces in for exercises to clear the straits,” said US Defense Secretary James Mattis last week. “Clearly, this would be an attack on international shipping, and – and it would have, obviously, an international response to reopen the shipping lanes with whatever that took, because of the world’s economy depends on that energy, those energy supplies flowing out of there.” Tensions between the two nations increased after the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May. The Trump White House has moved to reinstate sanctions on Tehran in two major tranches. Some will be reimposed in August and target autos, gold and other key metals, while others will snap back in November and target the energy sector and transactions with Iran’s central bank.