Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    TEHRAN, Nov.19 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Basij (voluntary forces) Commander Hojatoleslam Hossein Ta'eb said here Wednesday that Iran would enhance its navy might three times if there was a necessity, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    Ta'eb said to IRNA that "Basij is duty bound to train skilled forces for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy forces to thwart the enemies' threats in various sensitive conditions" and "The IRGC has planned to build up the navy forces three times in cooperation with the classic Navy of the Army."

    He referred to the supplementary would-be navy forces as the "Basij Navy troops," who would be "well prepared to thwart any possible threat to the Iranian territory."

    Naval Force commander of (IRGC) Rear Admiral Morteza Saffari said on Monday that Iran upgraded the naval base in Asalouyeh, a Gulf port in southern Iranian Booshehr province, according to the official IRNA news agency.

    The naval base of Asalouyeh would undertake the upgraded "regional" missions in the forth naval region of "Sar-allah" in "Persian Gulf" to encounter the current threats, Saffari was quoted as saying.

    Iran recently started constructing new naval bases along the coast of the Sea of Oman for an "impenetrable line of defense," according to Iran's daily Tehran Times report released late October this year.

    The new bases are supposed to extend from Bandar Abbas, a major Iranian seaport on the Strait of Hormuz, to Pasa Bandar near the Pakistan border, Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari was quoted as saying.

    "The new mission of the Navy is to establish an impenetrable line of defense at the entrance to the Sea of Oman," Sayari said, adding that the new bases would be constructed rapidly.

    Late last month, Iran's Armed Forces inaugurated a new naval base in the strategic port of Jask, east of the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran to function as a "protective barrier in the eastern parts of the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman."

    The United States and Israel have consistently refused to rule out the possibility of military strikes against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear program.

    The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program.

    Iran has denied the U.S. charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.