Iran warns Saudi over Arabian Gulf naval exercises

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Saudi Arabian naval vessels taking part in military exercises in the Arabian Gulf today to not get close to Iranian waters, in a sign of heightened tensions between the two regional rivals.

Reuters reported that Saudi began naval war games, including live fire exercises, in the Arabian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz yesterday, which is the world’s most important oil trade route.

Tehran and Riyadh are fighting several proxy wars in the Middle East, including in Syria and Yemen, but both have been cautious about direct military confrontation.

“The Revolutionary Guards naval forces believe this war game is mainly to create tension and destabilise the Persian Gulf,” the IRGC said in a statement published on Tasnim news agency, using the Iranian term for the Arabian Gulf.

“The [Saudi] vessels are not allowed to sail through Iran’s territorial waters or even the international waters near [Iran],” the IRGC’s navy warned, further threatening Saudi Arabia that it could not guarantee safe passage to its vessels if they failed to heed Iran’s warnings.

Freedom of navigation is a customary international law, allowing ships of sovereign states to sail through international waters unimpeded by any other actors. This means that, should Iran prevent Saudi Arabia from navigating international waters in the Arabian Gulf, it may be in breach of international law.

About 17 million barrels per day, or about 30 per cent of all seaborne-traded oil, passed through the Strait of Hormuz in 2013, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The United States, Saudi’s leading non-Arab ally, said in August and September that IRGC vessels “harassed” US warships several times in the Gulf in incidents that Washington described as “unsafe and unprofessional.”