TEHRAN, Jan 2: Iran tested missiles on Monday near the Strait of Hormuz, underlining its threats to close the vital oil-transit waterway as the West readies to impose more economic sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear drive.

The launch of three missiles took place on the final day of war games in waters east of the strait at the entrance to the Gulf, said official media and a navy spokesman, Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi.

The US, which keeps its Fifth Fleet based in the Gulf, has warned it will not tolerate a closure of the channel.

Two of the missiles can fly a maximum 200km and Mr Mousavi described one of them, a Qader ground-to-ship cruise missile, as a “long-range” weapon. The other, a Nasr anti-ship missile, had a range of 35km.—AFP