Iran's Persian Gulf islands constitute "27 fixed aircraft carriers" anchoring the country's regional naval power, former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy commander Hossein Alaei said in remarks on April 30, Eghtesad Online reported.

​Alaei claimed Iranian-controlled Gulf islands constituted 27 fixed, powerful aircraft carriers in the waterway and were a "key element of national maritime power" that needed to be developed alongside air and naval capabilities.

The UAE disputes the ownership of three islands, previously winning the support of Beijing and Washington to potentially annexe islands of Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunb, following years of disputes with Tehran. 

Alaei made the comments at a National Persian Gulf Day ceremony, claiming that the entire US naval fleet had withdrawn from the Persian Gulf during the recent 40-day war and that no American warship currently remained in the waterway.

The retired commander said Iran's naval power had reached unprecedented levels under the Islamic Republic, despite losing all its navy in the recent US-Israeli war on the country

In contrast to the post-Iran-Iraq war period, when the US had expanded its bases in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and particularly the United Arab Emirates, the recent conflict had reversed those gains, Alaei said.

The current US naval blockade in the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean targeting Iranian tanker movements mirrored measures taken by Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, Alaei said.

Alaei pushed back against US President Donald Trump's claims of having destroyed the Iranian Navy, saying the US targeting the Dena in Indian Ocean waters did not constitute a military achievement, he said. 

Trump had said in a televised interview that the entire Iranian Navy was at the bottom of the sea, while simultaneously stating that Iran needed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and that he was unable to do so himself, Alaei said.

The US had now returned to its pre-war 12-day strategy of expanding sanctions, deepening economic blockade and seeking to organise internal opposition to the Iranian system through paid agents and Israeli proxies, Alaei said.

Earlier, Iranian officials said on April 30 that a US naval blockade had failed to choke off the country's oil exports and that Tehran had enough storage capacity to see it through for another 30 days, pushing back against reports that Washington planned to tighten restrictions on Iranian shipments.

The remarks form part of a sustained Iranian official narrative emphasising the country's recovery from and counter-positioning of the US-Iran war that began on February 28 and the subsequent ceasefire signed on April 7.