TEHRAN- Despite facing sanctions, the 86th flotilla of the Iranian Navy completed a circumnavigation of the world to demonstrate the Islamic Republic’s maritime strength.

The flotilla sailed across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans without needing assistance from land. It traveled 63,000 kilometers and crossed the equator four times.

It was the first such mission in Iran’s naval history. 

On September 20, 2022, it departed from Bandar Abbas, a port city on the shores of the Persian Gulf. It finally anchored at Oman’s Salalah harbor on the 236th day of its journey.

On May 20, 2023, the flotilla returned to Iran and was greeted by crew members' families and officials.

The flotilla, consisted of the Dena destroyer and Makran forward base ship, berthed in February in Brazil’s southeastern port city of Rio de Janeiro.

Dena, a Mowj-class warship that joined the Iranian Navy in June 2021, 
was outfitted with anti-ship cruise missiles, torpedoes, and naval cannons.

As the fleet docked in Oman’s Salalah, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani said the U.S. failed to stop the flotilla from passing through the Panama Canal.

Admiral Irani asserted that “global arrogance” attempted to thwart the flotilla's mission through threats and penalties but was unsuccessful.
Speaking with Fars upon the return of the flotilla, he noted that “the United States sanction was no more than a rant based on international law… This was another slap on the face of the Great Satan (the U.S.”

On February 3, 2023, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Dena and Makran warships as Iranian property for sanctions in connection with a broader attempt to target the country’s drone industry.

Also in 2021, Makran, an oil tanker that has been converted into a warship, accompanied the frigate Sahand on a trip to the Baltic Sea, where they participated in a joint military exercise with Russian warships. 

Why is a strong navy important for a country?

Ken Booth, in an article titled “An Inventory of the Functions of Navies”, wrote that the Navy is needed for "the use of the sea". He went on to say that navies, therefore, arise out of national needs in using the sea for the passage of goods, people, military force, diplomatic purposes, and the exploitation of the resources in or under the sea. Navies are, therefore, a means whereby a nation attempts to use the sea for its purposes while attempting to prevent others from using it in ways that are to its disadvantage. Booth divided the roles of the navies into three categories: Basic roles, policy objectives, and operational tasks. Basic roles are the main functions that navies are expected to perform, divided into policing, Diplomatic, and Military roles. Policy objectives refer to the specific purposes of each of the basic roles. Operational tasks are how planners translate policy objectives into modes of naval action. 

In an article headlined “Navies and Economic Prosperity: the New Logic of Sea Power”, Robert C. Rubel, Dean of the Centre for Naval Warfare Studies at the U.S. Naval War College, also stated that there are some different justifications that have been used over the course of history, including guarding the nation’s coast from the depredations of raiders or invaders, moving its army to a foreign shore, and simply prestige; announcing to the world via the possession of a fleet that the nation is a significant power. It is also routinely argued that a navy is needed to secure the nation’s economic interests by protecting its commercial shipping. 

Reactions to the growing might of Iran’s Navy

The French Navy official claimed the Iranian warships had violated its seas, according to the Cradle news agency. 

During a meeting with Admiral Irani in Tehran in May, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, pushed for naval cooperation with Iran, expressing willingness to sign bilateral agreements with the Iranian Navy in some areas.
The Russian admiral also hoped his visit to Iran would further improve cooperation between the two countries' navies.
He emphasized the importance of strengthening ties between the Iranian and Russian naval forces. 
Yevmenov also stated that the Russian Navy is fully prepared to work with Iran to advance bilateral relations.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), told USNI News that much of the rhetoric related to the 86th flotilla deployment was to counter the ongoing civil unrest in Iran. 
He said that if anything, the statement tells one more about Iranian intentions than capabilities, as Iran tries to project strength abroad when it is increasingly looking weak at home.

The spokesperson for the State Department also told Fox News, “We continue to monitor Iran’s attempts to have a military presence in the Western Hemisphere.” 

The Panama Canal is a vital shipping lane for the West and the global economy. An Iranian military presence in the area would be a direct threat to U.S. and international trade and world markets. According to Forbes, approximately 20 percent of the world's shipping is registered in Panama by deadweight tons.

Maria Elvira Salazar, an American journalist serving as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 27th congressional district, blamed the Biden administration for supporting the Iran-friendly socialist and left-wingers in Latin America.

“The Biden administration should be strengthening political forces committed to keeping our hemisphere free of antisemitic terror,” she told Fox News.

Following the flotilla’s arrival in Brazil's southern port city Rio de Janeiro, the Biden administration heavily criticized a move that recognized the Dena and Makran warships as Iranian property for sanctions as part of a larger effort to target the country's drone sector, according to The Cradle.
 
Following Tehran’s announcement that its navy would deploy ships in the waterway earlier in January, the U.S. said it was closely monitoring Iran’s activity in the Panama Canal, according to former State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who talked to The Washington Free Beacon.

Sputnik News reported that the United States military closely monitored the flotilla along its route, with the State Department expressing its “deep disappointment” over Brazil’s decision to allow the Iranian warships to dock in Rio. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols told a Congressional committee that the Islamic Republic’s vessels “have no place in our hemisphere,” parroting the rhetoric of the 19th century’s Monroe Doctrine, which holds that the entire Western Hemisphere is the exclusive security domain of the United States.

Washington threatened to slap new sanctions on Tehran if the Iranian flotilla sailed through the Panama Canal, with a State Department spokesman warning in February that the U.S. has some tools in its tool belt to hold Iran accountable.

The same month, U.S. special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, whose security clearance is now being reviewed and is on unpaid leave, announced sanctions against the Makran and the Dena and warned that “any person or entity conducting transactions that involve these ships risks exposure to U.S. sanctions themselves.”

Panama ignored U.S. intimidation and allowed the Iranian ships to sail through without incident.