Iran spy base near site of Brit kidnapping

Telegraph:

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.

But the US military believes the listening post could also be used to help Iranian forces target commercial shipping in response to any US air strikes on its nuclear facilities.

Such operations would form part of their threat to launch guerrilla or asymmetric attacks on western interests if Iran is attacked.

US forces have responded by establishing their own listening post, positioning it on an oil platform just across the maritime border between Iraq and Iran from the Iranian position. The two spying posts are now monitoring each other’s activity.

British naval personnel who have recently served in the Gulf have told The Sunday Telegraph that tensions between the Americans and the Iranians have soared, with both sides heavily involved in espionage and counter-espionage operations.

British forces are also on high alert in an attempt to prevent any repeat of the March incident. “The Revolutionary Guard navy comes out every day to cruise around on their side of the line in their fast patrol boats and drop of supplies at their surveillance base,” one said.

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British personnel said that Iranian activity had forced them to rethink their priorities in the Gulf: “Up to March, when our sailors were captured by the Iranians, coalition patrols concentrated on protecting Iraq’s oil export terminals from al-Qaeda suicide bombers.

"Now watching the Iranians is our top priority. We don’t want to be taken by surprise again and we need to keep know what they are doing in case things kick off if the Yanks bomb the Iranian nuclear sites.”

The Iranian spying post is located in shallow waters southeast of the tip of the Al Faw peninsular. It is located in water claimed by Iran, although the maritime boundary in the area is disputed by the Iraqi government.

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I am surprised the Brits are so worried about this spy base in the event of a US strike on Iran. I feel certain it will be an early target list and certainly will not survive 24 hours into the operation. It is good to see that they are concerned about the Iranian threat finally. Al Qaeda's ability to project power off shore appears to have been greatly diminished as its forces in Iraq have been destroyed. Iran is certainly the more relevant threat in gulf.