GENEVA: Iransummoned Kuwait's envoy in Tehran yesterday to protest about Kuwaiti officialsmeeting a representative of a "terrorist group" and hosting an"anti-Iranian" meeting, Iran's foreign ministry said in a statementon its website. The ministry did not provide any more details about the groupconcerned or about which Kuwaiti officials had met the group's representative.
"These kindsof actions are clear interference in the internal affairs of the IslamicRepublic of Iran and a violation of the principle of good neighborly relationsand friendly statements from Kuwaiti officials," the Iranian foreignministry's representative for the Gulf said, according to the statement.
Acting US NavySecretary Thomas Modly said on Friday that Iran could carry out"provocative actions" in the Strait of Hormuz and elsewhere in thatregion in the future despite a period of relative calm, Tensions in the Gulfhave mounted since attacks on oil tankers this summer, including off the coastof the United Arab Emirates, and a major strike on oil facilities in SaudiArabia. Washington has blamed Iran, which has denied being behind the attacks.
"I thinkthey're going to continue to perform provocative actions over there... and Ithink they'll look at every opportunity they can to do that," Modly toldReuters, without giving a timeline or details. "There's nothing thatsuggests to me, short of a regime change there, that you have a different toneset from the leadership, that would suggest to me that they're going to stopdoing what they've been doing," he added.
Since May, thePentagon has sent 14,000 additional troops to the region to deter Iran,including an aircraft carrier. Modly suggested that US reactions to Iranianactions could take away from the Pentagon's focus toward priorities likecountering China. "As they start creating mischief over there... ourreaction is we send an aircraft carrier over there for 10 months," hesaid. "What does that do to our carrier readiness? It degrades readinessthe longer it's over there."
Modly's warningon future actions coincides with China, Iran and Russia beginning joint navaldrills in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman. Waters around Iran have become alocus of international tension, with the United States exerting pressure forIranian crude oil sales and other trade ties to be cut off, mainly throughextensive sanctions. The Gulf of Oman is a particularly sensitive waterway asit connects to the Strait of Hormuz - through which about a fifth of theworld's oil passes - which in turn connects to the Gulf.
Asked if heexpected Iran to lash out in the region as a result of internal protests, Modlysaid he had not seen intelligence on that. Demonstrations against a hike infuel prices turned political last month in Iran, sparking the bloodiestcrackdown in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic. About 1,500 peoplewere killed during less than two weeks of unrest, three Iranian interiorministry officials told Reuters.
The four days ofjoint naval drills come at a time of heightened tensions since the UnitedStates withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in May last year."The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting securitythrough cooperation and unity... and its effect will be to show that Irancannot be isolated," Rear Admiral Gholamreza Tahani said on statetelevision.
Tahani added thatthe drills included rescuing ships on fire or vessels under attack by pirates andshooting exercises, with both Iran's navy and its Revolutionary Guardsparticipating. State television showed what it said was a Russian warshiparriving at Chabahar port in southern Iran and said the Chinese will joinshortly, calling the three countries "the new triangle of power in thesea".
"The aim ofthis drill is to bolster security of international maritime commerce,combatting piracy and terrorism and sharing information... andexperience," the flotilla commander said. "Us hosting these powersshows that our relations have reached a meaningful point and may have aninternational impact," he added.
Japan said Fridayit would send a military vessel and two patrol planes to help protect waterwaysin the region, but will not join the US-led coalition. Tokyo will send adestroyer for intelligence activities along with two patrol aircraft, chiefcabinet secretary and government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters. Themove is "Japan's own measure aimed at peace and stability in the MiddleEast as well as ensuring safety of Japan-related vessels," he said, notingthat 90 percent of crude oil Tokyo imports were from the region.
The Japanesepatrol activities will not be deployed in the Strait of Hormuz, through whichmuch of the global oil trade passes and where the US-led coalition operates, adefense ministry spokesman told AFP. The Self-Defense Forces (SDFs) willoperate in the high seas in the Gulf of Oman, the northern Arabian Sea and theGulf of Aden, he said.
Meanwhile, arocket attack in Iraq killed a US civilian contractor, raising fears yesterdaythat violence could escalate in the protest-hit country already engulfed in itsworst political crisis in decades. Washington recently promised "adecisive US response" to a growing number of unclaimed attacks on itsinterests in Iraq, which it blames on pro-Iran factions. US-Iran tensions havesoared since Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehranlast year and imposed crippling sanctions.
Baghdad - whichis close to both countries - risks being caught in the middle. A barrage of 30rockets was fired at the K1 Iraqi military base in Kirkuk, an oil-rich regionnorth of Baghdad, around 2220 GMT Friday, a US official told AFP. "One UScivilian contractor was killed and several US service members and Iraqipersonnel were wounded," said the US-led international coalition againstthe Islamic State group. A direct hit on an ammunition depot caused secondaryexplosions, and four more rockets were found in their tubes in a truck at thelaunch point, the US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Federal securityforces, Shiite militia units and IS sleeper cells all have a presence in Kirkukprovince, which is claimed by both Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region and federalauthorities. Following the attack, "an escalation is possible but it isfar from certain", said Iraq expert Fanar Haddad at Singapore University'sMiddle East Institute. "More importantly, anyone pushing for an escalationin (Washington) DC will have to contend with (President Donald) Trump'saversion to increased military engagement in the Middle East."
The attack comesas Iraq is gripped by its biggest anti-government street protests since theUS-led invasion of 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Protesters, manyof whom grew up in the post-Saddam era, have vented their anger at a governmentthey consider inept, corrupt and beholden to neighboring Iran. Violence hasclaimed about 460 lives, most of them protesters, and left some 25,000 peoplewounded, but rallies and sit-ins have continued.
Demonstratorsyesterday blocked a road to an oil field in Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq,halting production for the first time since protests started in early October.If sustained, such shut-downs could have a major impact in OPEC's secondlargest producer, which depends on oil exports averaging 3.6 million barrels aday. The protests forced the resignation of the Iraqi government nearly a monthago. Since then, Iran and its local allies have pushed to select the next primeminister, sparking more anger and threats by the president to quit.
The politicalunrest has coincided with an increase in rocket and mortar attacks againstAmerican interests in Iraq. Ten attacks since Oct 28 have left several Iraqimilitary personnel wounded and one dead and caused damage around the US Embassyin Baghdad's ultra-secure Green Zone. Five rockets hit Al-Asad air base on 3,just four days after US Vice President Mike Pence visited troops there. Morethan a dozen rockets hit the Qayyarah air base in northern Iraq in November.
In Friday'sattack, a Kirkuk provincial security official told AFP, "the shots werevery accurate. The attack was aimed precisely at the area where the Americansare located, near the meeting room". A US source has said pro-Iranfactions in Iraq are now considered a more significant threat to Americansoldiers than IS, whose sweeping offensive in 2014 saw Washington deploythousands of troops to the country.
Reflecting thisconcern, "a convoy of 15 American vehicles each carrying armor andweapons" recently arrived at the US embassy in Baghdad, according to anIraqi security official. US diplomatic and military sources have told AFP oftheir growing frustration with the recent attacks. They say they rely on theirIraqi partners to play a "de-conflicting" role between Americanforces and the Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella organization for paramilitarygroups largely made up of Iran-backed Shiite militias. That is a complicatedtask, as the Hashed has been ordered to integrate with the regular securityforces, but many of its fighters continue to operate with a degree ofindependence. - Agencies