Arab states’ military drills will not affect Iran’s might: Iranian MP

TEHRAN, May (MNA) – MP Hossein Ebrahimi of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has said that Persian Gulf Arab states’ joint military exercises will not affect Iran’s might. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is so mighty that it will be able to fully protect the interests of the (country), and such threats will have no effect on Iran’s might,” Ebrahimi told the Mehr News Agency on Monday. “Even if the Unites States and Britain support Arabs or encourage them, they cannot stand up to the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said. On Sunday, Persian Gulf Arab states began two days of joint military exercises, dubbed Islands of Loyalty. The drills were carried out by the Peninsula Shield Force, the joint army of the Persian Gulf Arab states, to test the ability of ground, air and naval troops to carry out missions along coasts and on islands in territorial waters. Ebrahimi also said that the drills cannot be related to the United Arab Emirates’ recent claims of sovereignty over the three Iranian islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs in the Persian Gulf. “UAE along with other Arab countries like Bahrain had been making efforts to hold the exercises for a long time,” he said. The UAE renewed its claims over the islands as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Abu Musa Island on April 11. The UAE claimed that the visit “is a flagrant violation of the United Arab Emirates’ sovereignty over its territory and a transgression of efforts to find a peaceful settlement to end Iranian occupation of the three UAE islands.”