Iran spy post heightens Gulf tension with US

Source: Telegraph/UK

Iran spy post heightens Gulf tension with US

By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:46am BST 09/09/2007

Iran has established a sophisticated spying operation at the head of the Arabian Gulf in a move which has significantly heightened tensions in its standoff with the United States.



The operation, masterminded by the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard, includes the construction of a high-tech spying post close to the point where Iranian forces kidnapped 15 British naval personnel in March. The move has forced British and American commanders to divert resources away from protecting oil platforms in the Gulf from terrorist attack and into countering the new Iranian threat.

The US military says that the spying post, build on the foundations of a crane platform sunk during the Iran-Iraq war, is equipped with radar, cameras and forward facing infra-red devices to track the movement of coalition naval forces and commercial shipping in the northern Arabian Gulf.

Commanders fear that one of the main purposes of the Iranian operation is to enable the Revolutionary Guard to intercept more coalition vessels moving through the disputed waters near the mouth of the Shatt al Arab waterway south of the Iraqi city of Basra. The disastrous British handling of the hostage crisis has convinced some in the Iranian regime that there is mileage in further such attempts.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/09/wiran109.xml

They would be reckless not to try and protect themselves from US aggression. sheesh.

suuuure. i love how the graphic shows the 'US SPY BASE' nearby. i wonder if IT 'has significantly heightened tensions' as well?