Iran is set to demonstrate its ability to project power far beyond its shores with the sending of a warship to the Gulf of Mexico.
In his first press conference in Tehran since being appointed, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said that Iranian naval forces will cross the Atlantic and stop over at friendly South American countries before flying the Iranian flag in the Gulf of Mexico, local media reported lately.
“Our fleet of warships will be sent to the Atlantic Ocean in the near future and will visit one of the friendly states in South America and the Gulf of Mexico,” Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
Earlier this month, former navy chief and now deputy commander of the Iranian Army Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that it was a crucial objective for the Iranian Navy to be able to project its power far beyond the shores of Iran.
Khanzadi also announced plans to revitalize the Iranian Navy’s hardware with upgraded vessels and helicopters, as well as a new ship and submarine fleet, which will be unveiled within the next year. Khanzadi added that a new Peykan-class Separ (shield) missile-launching corvette would join the country’s Caspian Fleet next week, and that there are also plans for the Navy to build an airport in the southern port city of Jask.
In 2014, Iran announced that it was sending its vessels to the Gulf of Mexico, located between the eastern coast of Mexico and the southern American states of Texas, Florida and Louisiana. The intention was to protest the constant US presence in the Persian Gulf, the Navy 5th fleet’s Bahrain base having occasionally led to confrontations.
