A handout photo made available by the Iranian Navy office on Feb 23, 2019, shows Iranian Navy submarines sailing during an Iranian navy drill in the Gulf of Oman, on Feb 22, 2019. (IRANIAN NAVY OFFICE / AFP)

DUBAI - Iran’s military launched an annual drill in the Gulf near the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway, Iranian state TV reported on Thursday, at a time of high tension between Tehran and Washington.

Naval, air and ground forces, including submarines and drones, were participating in the drill, called Zolfaghar-99, the report said

The three-day exercise on the eastern side of the strait in the Gulf of Oman is aimed at improving Tehran’s military might to confront “foreign threats and any possible invasion”, the commander of the manoeuvre, Admiral Habibollah Sardari, told TV.

Naval, air and ground forces, including submarines and drones, were participating in the drill, called Zolfaghar-99, the report said.

There have been periodic confrontations between Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and the US military in the Gulf in recent years. Washington has accused the Guards’ navy of sending fast-attack boats to harass US warships in the strait.

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The spokesman for the drill, Admiral Shahram Irani, told state TV that the United States had withdrawn drones from the area of the exercise after a warning from Iran.

Tehran, which opposes the presence of US and Western navies in the area, holds annual war games in the strait, the conduit for some 30 percent of all crude traded by sea.

Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington since 2018, when the United States withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six major powers, and reimposed sanctions. Iran has threatened to block the Strait if its crude exports were shut down by US sanctions.

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