US Navy denies reports of offensive military build-up in Gulf

dpa German Press Agency Published: Monday February 19, 2007

The US Navy's top Persian Gulf commander on Monday denied reports of a US naval offensive military build-up in the region, affirming however that the coalition was keeping a close watch on increasing Iranian naval exercises in Gulf waters. Commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command and the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh, said that this was "an unprecedented time of instability and insecurity in the region," with tension in Somalia, Lebanon, Eastern Mediterranean, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. He also said that Iranian military naval exercises in the past nine months showed the suggestion of the use of mines and the threat of the closure of the strait of Hormuz, the only sea access into and out of the region. Walsh, who was speaking to the media at the US Navy 5th Fleet Command in Manama before being replaced by Vice Admiral Kevin J Cosgriff in the coming days, described the Iranian exercises in the strait as provocative. "Mines are an offensive terrorist type of weapon," he said. "We are not giving up water to Iran. This is international waters, it therefore should have international access and we will safeguard that with our regional and coalition partners." Walsh added that concerns over Iranian intentions are augmented by the firing of ballistic missiles into the Gulf and some of the rhetoric coming out of the Iranian leadership. "The question is not what the Americans are planning but what the Iranians are planning," he said. "When they conduct their exercises and they fire their missiles we are watching very closely and we are sharing that information with our Gulf partners." Walsh emphasized that the US military presence in the region was of a defensive nature, dismissing rumours of an impending attack on Iran. The outgoing commander also said the US had no intentions of abandoning its allies in the region and dismissed reports that the US 5th Fleet command would be transferred out of Bahrain.