The US Navy Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in
the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of
aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack
maneuvers off the coast of Iran.
The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of US warships
and more than a hundred US warplanes to conduct simulated air
warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.
The US exercises come just four days after Iran's capture of 15
British sailors and marines who had, Iran said, strayed into
Iranian waters. Britain and the US Navy have insisted the British
sailors were operating in Iraqi waters.
US Navy Commander Kevin Aandahl said the US maneuvers were not
organized in response to the capture of the British sailors nor
were they meant to threaten the Islamic Republic, whose navy
operates in the same waters.
He declined to specify when the Navy planned the exercises.
Aandahl said the US warships would stay out of Iranian
territorial waters, which extend 12 miles off the Iranian
coast.
A French naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier Charles
de Gaulle, was operating simultaneously just outside the Gulf. But
the French ships were supporting the NATO forces in Afghanistan and
not taking part in the US maneuvers, officials said.
Overall, the exercises involve more than 10,000 US personnel on
warships and aircraft making simulated attacks on enemy shipping
with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and finding
mines.
"What it should be seen as by Iran or anyone else is that it's
for regional stability and security," Aandahl said. "These ships
are just another demonstration of that. If there's a destabilizing
effect, it's Iran's behavior."
'Different phase'
The maneuvers came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair said
Tuesday that Britain hopes diplomacy will win the release of 15
sailors and marines detained by Iran but is prepared to move to a
"different phase" if negotiations fail.
Britain has said the Royal Navy crew were seized on Friday just
after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi
part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border with Iran is
disputed.
"I hope we manage to get them (the Iranian government) to
realize they have to release them," Blair said in an interview with
GMTV. "If not, then this will move into a different phase."
Asked what that meant, Blair said: "Well, we will just have to
see, but what they should understand is that we cannot have a
situation where our servicemen and women are seized when actually
they are in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate, patrolling perfectly
rightly and in accordance with that mandate, and then effectively
captured and taken to Iran."
Crew are treated well: Iran
Blair said his primary concern was the welfare of the Royal Navy
personnel, which include Faye Turney, 26, the only woman among the
crew.
Iran said Tuesday the 15 crew are healthy and are being treated
well, and that Turney had been given privacy.
"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have
been treated with humanitarian and moral behavior," said Mohammad
Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
(China Daily via agencies March 28, 2007)
