2014年CRI 美韩举行最大规模空军演习 美坚持不给伊朗代表发签证（在线收听）

美韩举行最大规模空军演习 美坚持不给伊朗代表发签证

South Korea and the United States have launched their largest-ever joint air exercise to beef up their combined strategic capability amid the escalating tensions over the peninsula.

The "Max Thunder" exercise, which will last from April 11 to 25 over the entire airspace of South Korea, involves 103 aircraft and 1,400 service personnel, according to the South Korean air force.

South Korea air force has sent some 50 fighter jets along with around 50 U.S. warplanes.

The air exercise, which is held twice a year through realistic trainings to simulate air battles between two sides, is the largest one of this kind in numerical terms.

An official from South Korea's air force command says the joint drill was to enhance the army's readiness amid the rising tensions over the Peninsular.

The United States has informed Iran that it will not issue a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi, Tehran's newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations.

Lawmakers sponsoring the bill say that Aboutalebi should be banned from entry to the United States because he was a member of a militant group that held 52 Americans hostage when it seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has slammed the U.S. stance on the new ambassador as "unacceptable."