The drill will be Iran's latest show of strength in the face of mounting international criticism over its controversial nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at producing atomic weapons — charges that Tehran denies, insisting the program is for peaceful purposes only.

The Strait of Hormuz is of strategic significance as the passageway for about a third of the world's oil tanker traffic. Beyond it lie vast bodies of water, including the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The US Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is also active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there.

Both the US and Israel have not ruled out a military option against Iran over its nuclear program, while Iranian hard-liners have come out with occasional threats that Tehran would seal off the key waterway if the US or Israel moved against the country's nuclear facilities.

Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told Iranian state TV that the maneuvers, dubbed Velayat-90, will begin Saturday, He said they will be held in a 2,000-km stretch of sea off the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula and into the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance to the Red Sea.

Iran regularly holds war games and has also been active in fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

Sayyari denied an Iranian media report from last week that the drill would close the Strait of Hormuz. "There has been no decision yet on this," he was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

However, he stressed that Iran's Navy and the Revolutionary Guards have the capability to close the strait but that "any decision on this will have to come from the leader," referring to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Sayyari said the Iranian Navy would use submarines, warships, missiles and torpedoes as well as unmanned planes during the drill but that it would take place "within the framework of international norms."

Meanwhile, Britain's foreign secretary said Thursday that Iran had blocked access to a British government website aimed at Iranian audiences in a new act of aggression against the UK.

William Hague claimed that the website — the online presence of Britain's now shuttered embassy in Tehran — had been deliberately targeted by the Iranian regime.

The decision to disrupt access to the site follows the violent storming of Britain's Embassy by demonstrators last month, when a mob trashed rooms, damaged furniture, scrawled graffiti and tore up a portrait of Queen Victoria, as staff took shelter.

The British website contained information for Iranians hoping to visit Britain and details on UK government policies. Those trying to access the pages are now directed to a list of Iranian government approved websites, including Iran's English-language Press TV.