In a ceremony in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Thursday more than 100 new gunboats were delivered to the Revolutionary Guard's Naval Force.
The vessels are improved versions of Ashura, Tareq and Zolfaghar class boats manufactured by the Defense Ministry's Marine Industries Organization and the Revolutionary Guard's Naval Force, Tasnim News Agency reported.
"Our strategy is defensive and our tactic are offensive," Revolutionary Guard Commander Major-General Hossein Salami who attended the ceremony in Bandar Abbas said.
“We will not bow to enemies. We will not retreat,” he decalred and added: “Defense is our logic in war but not in the sense of passivity against the enemy. Our operations and tactics are offensive and we have shown it in the battlefield”.
The ceremony was also attended by Defense Minister Brigadier-General Amir Hatami who said more than 95 percent of naval boats are being manufactured in Iran now.
The United States says Revolutionary Guard's vessels harass U.S. Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf and international waters in the region. The Guard's boats often approach the vessels in what the U.S. calls a "dangerous and provocative" manner.
On Monday Revolutionary Guard's Political Affairs Deputy, Brigadier-General Yadollah Javani, dismissed U.S. military drills in the Persian Gulf saying the exercises would not intimidate the Islamic Republic.
“What Americans call military exercises for strengthening security in the Persian Gulf region and as assistance to their allies are in reality attempts to solidify their presence in the area,” Javani said and claimed that regional nations “are waking up” and “the resistance front” supports the Islamic Republic.
The resistance front is a label used for a host of state and non-sate allies, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, Houthi forces in Yemen, Shiite militia in Iraq and others.
President Trump has ordered the U.S. Navy to attack and destroy any Iranian vessel that harasses U.S. ships.
"I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea," Trump said in a tweet posted on April 22.
