Navy Commander: Iran to Dispatch Warships to West Atlantic Soon

“No military official in the world thought that we can go round Africa to the Atlantic Ocean through the Suez Canal but we did it as we had declared that we would go to the Atlantic and its Western waters,” Rear Admiral Sayyari said, addressing a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday.

He said US officials appeared on the CNN and used the world map to show how far is the trajectory of such a mission and explain in military terms that it would be impossible for Iran to traverse through waters from its Southern port city of Bandar Abbas to the Atlantic. “But we moved into the Atlantic and will go to its Western waters in the near future”.

“Then it would be us to show the trajectory of our sail on the map to prove to them that we have managed to do so and that we, no doubt, will do whatever we say and are afraid of now power,” Rear Admiral Sayyari said in sarcastic remarks.

In relevant remarks in April, Rear Admiral Sayyari announced the country’s plans to expand naval presence in international waters, and underlined the Iranian warships’ redeployment in the Atlantic Ocean.

“Redeployment in the Atlantic Ocean, intelligence superiority, development of communications, progress in the development of Makran coasts and building new vessels are among the Navy’s plans in the current (Iranian) year (started on March 21),” he said.

He also referred to the Iranian Navy’s powerful presence in the high seas, and said, “3,900 ships have been escorted by the Navy’s fleets of warships sent to the free waters.”

The Iranian Navy deployed a flotilla of warships in the Atlantic Ocean in November.

“For the first time, the 44th flotilla comprised of Alvand and Bushehr destroyers could sail around the African continent and enter the Atlantic Ocean,” Admiral Sayyari told reporters in Tehran at the time.

The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.

According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.

The Gulf of Aden – which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea – is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.