Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami vowed Saturday to respond to any “action the enemy takes,” in a visit to a strategic Gulf island, amid rising tensions with the US.

“We are here today to evaluate and be assured of our powerful capabilities at sea and against enemies who sometimes boast… and threaten,” he asserted.

“We would respond with a reciprocal, decisive and strong blow to whatever action the enemy would take against us,” Salami warned, according to the Guards’ official website Sepahnews.

Salami was speaking on the eve of the first anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike on January 3, 2020.

The statement was made as he inspected the troops stationed on Abu Musa island, accompanied by the Revolutionary Guard Corps navy commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri.

Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb islands are located in the Gulf near the entrance to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world oil output passes.

The islands are under Iranian control but are also claimed by the United Arab Emirates.

Tensions have been building up in the run-up to the anniversary of Soleimani’s killing, with two American B-52 bombers recently flying over the region.

Read More: I24