IRGC Navy Warns Arab States Against Cooperation With Israel

Since 1995, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy has been tasked with guarding “the Persian Gulf, Iran’s islands and coasts, continental shelf, oil platforms, and passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”

With the growing regional rivalry between Iran and Israel, IRGC navy commander Commodore Ali Reza Tangsiri has recently expressed concern about prospects of an Israeli naval presence in the region. However, such warnings may be another factor chasing Iran’s neighbours into the arms of outside powers, including Israel.  

• June 11: Diplomasi-ye Irani (Iranian Diplomacy) reported that, while visiting Greater Tunb, an island in the eastern Gulf, Tangsiri warned Iran’s neighbors: “If anyone, for whatever reason, opens the path of the pathetic, infanticidal Zionist regime, our number one enemy, to the region, it would be to his own detriment and to the detriment of the region, which will be haunted by insecurity, disorder, and instability. We are advising friendly and brotherly states in the Persian Gulf not to establish relations with the Zionist regime, since in doing so, they will harm regional security.”  
• July 22: Shahrvand Online reported that, receiving the commander of the Royal Navy of Oman, Tangsiri said: “We are brothers and should not allow the aggressor infanticidal and seditionist regime to have a presence in the region.”  

• August 19: Mashregh News, quoting Tangsiri, wrote: “We consider safety of our neighbours as our own security … However, should a state prepare the ground for presence or intervention of arrogant powers in the region, or should provide them with bases, or air or ground passage as a part of a military alliance against nations of the region, we warn them. They will pay the heaviest price for their unfriendly and provocative deed.”