Clarion Content

Three, it is a magic number. These things always happen in threes. A third old saw; sorry, no such luck.

However, there has been a series of military exercises across the Middle East, three, in fact, that have raised tensions on all sides of the precarious three party stand-off between the United States, Israel, and Iran. The first two states determined to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons capability, the third, Iran, equally determined to gain such capability.

Iran which says it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, today tested several long range missiles. These missiles called the Shahab-3 have been in Iran's arsenal a number of years, there existence was not news to the United States, nor Israel. These missiles are capable of carrying a 1 ton warhead and traveling distances of up to nearly 1,000 miles. Iran dubbed the exercises which are being conducted in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, "The Great Prophet 3."

Iran's Air Force commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami said on state TV that Iran's aim was to, "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language."

Monday the United States Navy was conducting its own exercise in the Persian Gulf. The exercise called Exercise Stake Net was jointly carried out by two United States vessels from the Fifth Fleet, alongside a British warship and one from Bahrain, an American Gulf Arab ally.

The United States Navy through a spokesperson said its aim was to, "practice the tactics and procedures of protecting maritime infrastructure such as gas and oil installations."

Iran recently intimated should Israel preemptively strike at its nuclear facilities, it would shut down the Straits of Hormuz.

In early June Israel conducted air exercises involving more than 100 planes and distances of 1,000 miles over the eastern Mediterranean Sea. According to the Wall Street Journal, senior Pentagon officials say Israel gave the United States advanced notice of its intentions to conduct the exercise. Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny the exercise took place, nor to explicitly offer any reasons for the exercise saying only, "that it regularly trains for various missions."

Again according to the Wall Street Journal, "A second military official said that U.S. policy makers were divided over the reasons for the exercise. Some viewed the maneuvers as an actual practice run for a future strike on Iran, while others see it mainly as a show of force designed to remind both Tehran and Washington of Israel's concern."

Labels: Middle East