FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 file photo, a plane flies over the mountains in south of the Strait of Hormuz as the trading dhows and ships are docked on the Persian Gulf waters near the town of Khasab, in Oman. Sometime later this year, the U.S. Navy plans to send minesweepers and warships into the Gulf for exercises intended to make Iran think twice about any attempts to block oil tanker traffic through the narrow waterway that links the region's huge oil fields with world markets. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)