I'll see your Great Prophet...

...and raise you an Eagle Resolve.

At the beginning of April, Iran held military exercises called "Great Prophet", which was mostly designed to rattle sabres and show off weapons and make the West think twice about attacking Iran.

This week saw the beginning of military exercises, called "Eagle Resolve", involving the US and Gulf Cooperation Council states.

A military exercise, with the participation of multinational forces, was launched in Qatar. Code-named ‘Eagle Resolve 2006’, the exercise will continue until May 18.

Besides the Qatari Armed Forces, military units from the US, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and GCC countries will take part in the campaign.

Brig Gen Abdullah Jamaan al-Hamad told reporters yesterday that there would be military movements on Doha streets during May 8-12.

"There will be troop movements in most of the Doha areas and the city’s residents may hear some strange sounds," Brig Gen al-Hamad said.

Regarding the nature and objective of the exercise, he indicated that it would include a mock drill on how to deal with a catastrophe, which may be either natural or man-made.

"Participating forces will be requested to help in dealing with such a catastrophe," the official said.

Asked about the role of the American forces, he said the US Army has a wide experience in dealing with such emergencies "and we hope that we can benefit from it".

This is a little sabre rattling too. The Gulf States have to live in Iran's shadow, and would suffer if the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf was disrupted. So, in part, this is just to let Iran know that the mostly Arab states in this exercise are taking notice of Iran's belligerence. (Just in case Iran failed to note the message in the name itself.)