Iran's Military Holds Drills on Its Southern Coast

Iran regularly holds such drills and says they assess the troops’ combat readiness and demonstrate the nation’s military capabilities. (AFP)
Iran regularly holds such drills and says they assess the troops’ combat readiness and demonstrate the nation’s military capabilities. (AFP)
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Iran's Military Holds Drills on Its Southern Coast

Iran regularly holds such drills and says they assess the troops’ combat readiness and demonstrate the nation’s military capabilities. (AFP)
Iran regularly holds such drills and says they assess the troops’ combat readiness and demonstrate the nation’s military capabilities. (AFP)

Iran's military launched an annual exercise on its southern coast on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, a few weeks before resumption of talks between Tehran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

The exercise covers an area from the eastern parts of the Strait of Hormuz to the northern parts of the Indian Ocean and parts of the Red Sea, state television reported.

Periodic confrontations have taken place between Iran’s military and US forces in the Gulf since 2018, when former US President Donald Trump exited the nuclear pact and
reimposed harsh sanctions against Tehran.

Iran has reacted by breaching the deal's limits on its nuclear program.

Last week, Iran claimed that it had thwarted an attempt by the US Navy to seize a tanker in the Sea of Oman carrying its oil, and that the vessel was back in Iranian waters.

The Pentagon denied these claims, describing them as "completely false, untrue... and ridiculous."



Danish PM Tells Trump It Is up to Greenland to Decide on Independence

Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen attends the Baltic Sea NATO Allies Summit in Helsinki, Finland, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen attends the Baltic Sea NATO Allies Summit in Helsinki, Finland, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
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Danish PM Tells Trump It Is up to Greenland to Decide on Independence

Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen attends the Baltic Sea NATO Allies Summit in Helsinki, Finland, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen attends the Baltic Sea NATO Allies Summit in Helsinki, Finland, 14 January 2025. (EPA)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday she had spoken on the phone with US President-elect Donald Trump and told him that it is up to Greenland itself to decide on any independence.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, said last week that US control of Greenland was an "absolute necessity" and did not rule out using military or economic action such as tariffs against Denmark to make it happen.

"In the conversation, the prime minister referred to the statements of the Chairman of the Greenlandic Parliament, Mute B. Egede, that Greenland is not for sale," Frederiksen's office said in a statement.

"The prime minister emphasized that it is up to Greenland itself to make a decision on independence," the statement said.

Frederiksen also stressed the importance of strengthening security in the Arctic and that Denmark was open to taking a greater responsibility, it added.