Iran’s Defence Minister: Israeli involvement in Gulf coalition may have ‘disastrous consequences’
“The formation of a US-led security mission in the Persian Gulf would cause a dramatic decline in regional maritime security, while any Israeli involvement in the operation may carry utterly catastrophic repercussions”, Iranian Defence Minister Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami said.
“The region should not be an area for foreigners,” Hatami said, speaking in a conference call with his counterparts from Qatar, Kuwait and Oman on Thursday.
“There is no doubt that the countries of the Persian Gulf region should ensure security in the region. The Islamic Republic of Iran is also an important country for maintaining stability in the Gulf,” the minister said.
Commenting on Operation Sentinel, the US-proposed effort to deploy a military coalition to ensure the freedom of navigation through the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, Hatami stressed that such a coalition would only have the opposite effect.
“The military coalition that America is seeking to form with the excuse of ‘securing maritime transport’ will only increase insecurity in the region,” the defence minister stressed, adding that Washington itself, not Tehran, was the primary source of tensions in the region.
