After 10 Years, Iran Opens Naval Base at Jask

For some time, the Iranian authorities have sought to build up their maritime access to the open seas by developing port infrastructure outside the Gulf, acknowledging the vulnerability of dependency on free and uninterrupted access through the Straits of Hormuz.

This objective can be seen in the construction of the 1,000-km 42-inch pipe bringing oil from the crude collection point at Goreh in Bushehr Province to a new oil export terminal at Jask Mobarak, a project which was supposed to support three single-point moorings and a throughput of one million barrels per day.   Despite the huge investment and the inauguration of the pipeline on July 22, 2021, the oil terminal is hardly being used, with the last tanker spotted loading on September 19 last year.

It appears to be a similar tale of watered-down ambition in the naval domain, apparent when on January 16 the Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri, I…