TEHRAN - Habibollah Sayyari, the deputy army chief for coordination affairs, said on Wednesday that the Iranian Navy is capable of sending its fleet of warships to the Atlantic Ocean.

Sayyari, in an interview with Tasnim in the port city of Konarak, said, “Our fleet enjoys full readiness for presence in the Atlantic Ocean as we did it in the past years when the hegemonic powers drew a 12000-mile line and said that Iran is not allowed to cross that line. We entered and sailed round Africa to enter the Atlantic Ocean to prove that we can.”

“We are planning to have a similar presence to move along the Atlantic Ocean altitude to go forward in the free seas as much as the international maritime law permits,” he added. 

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 the Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali 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.

MJ/PA