Tehran: A senior Iranian military official said on Monday that US forces had moved more than 1000 kilometres from Iran’s borders, attributing the withdrawal to Iranian military pressure.
Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, head of the advisory group to the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, made the remarks on Iranian public television, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The IRGC is a branch of Iran’s armed forces with land, naval and aerospace units.
Fadavi claimed that American warships were absent from the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman and northern Indian Ocean for the first time. The report did not provide independent confirmation of their locations or a US response.
“The Americans have fled and moved more than 1000km away from our borders,” he said, arguing that the movement resulted from Iran’s military capabilities rather than an American decision.
Fadavi also claimed Washington had failed to achieve its objectives in the war and said Iran had controlled the Strait of Hormuz for several months.
Hormuz is the narrow passage linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, making it a crucial route for oil and liquefied natural gas exports. Restrictions there affect shipping, insurance costs and energy supplies.
According to Fadavi, Tehran and Oman had jointly developed navigation rules for the strait. He said some captains were using a southern route because of insurance and financial obligations.
He estimated that between 3 million and 4 million barrels of oil a day were moving along an alternative route outside the passage designated by Iran. That figure was presented as his assessment rather than independently verified shipping data.
