DUBAI, August 13. /TASS/. The Iranian Navy’s air defense exercise will be held near the port city of Astara in the southern areas of the Caspian Sea on Tuesday, the city's deputy mayor Hamid Mousavi has said.

"An exercise of the Iranian Navy’s air defenses will be held near the naval base in Astara on Tuesday evening," Mousavi told the Mehr News Agency. According to the official, explosive munitions will be used.

The Iranian statement came amid an escalation in the Middle East over the July 31 assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Palestinian Hamas political bureau, in Tehran. Hamas and Iran held Israel responsible for Haniyeh's death and promised a harsh response. From August 9 to 13, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held exercises in the Iranian province of Kermanshah near the town of Qasr-e Shirin on the border with Iraq.