Iran’s military conducts new round of drills amid U.S. pressure

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out a fresh round of drills off Iran’s southern coast on Tuesday amid the U.S. military buildup in the region, according to state-affiliated media.

The drills are focused on the southern coast near the Strait of Hormuz, though reports indicate that Iranian troops would participate in similar war games at unspecified locations around the country.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Karami, commander of IRGC ground forces, told state-affiliated media on Tuesday that the drills were launched in reaction to “threats that exist” in the region, without elaborating.

“Very good measures have been designed in various sectors, including missiles, artillery, drones, special forces, armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers,” Gen. Karami said.

The drills will test the effectiveness of Iranian drones, artillery and various ground-to-sea missiles.

Tuesday’s drills are the second batch of high-profile military exercises launched by Iran this month. Tehran announced last week that it would partially close the Strait of Hormuz for several hours while its forces conducted extensive live-fire tests.

Those exercises alarmed regional experts, who noted the potential damage if Iran decided to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to a U.S. attack. The strait is the only waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, making it a strategic choke point. As much as one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and petroleum is transported through the strait annually.

Iranian officials have never officially closed the strait before the exercises, though they have routinely seized vessels in those waters.

The ramp-up in military drills comes as the U.S. continues to apply diplomatic and military pressure on Iran to reach a deal on the Islamic republic’s nuclear program. Over the past month, the Pentagon has moved dozens of warships, fighter jets, refueling tankers, missile defense batteries and two aircraft carriers to the region.

Meanwhile, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are conducting indirect negotiations with Iranian officials over the future of Tehran’s nuclear program. U.S. officials have demanded that Iran abandon its nuclear ambitions and severely limit its ballistic missile program.

Mr. Witkoff has warned that Tehran is only a few steps away from achieving a nuclear weapon with its current level of enriched uranium.

Iran has repeatedly insisted that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon and that it is within its rights to pursue uranium enrichment under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory.