Iran Sends 6 Warships to International Waters
May 25, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Iran has sent six warships into international waters in a move security experts are calling a “muscle flexing” show of defiance following missile tests last week.
“Iran has dispatched six … warships to international waters and the Gulf of Aden region in a historically unprecedented move by the Iranian Navy,” Iranian Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told a gathering of armed forces officials, Reuters reported.
Sayyari said the ships were moved to preserve Iran’s territorial integrity in its southern waters, but foreign policy experts are calling it an aggressive move targeted at a Western audience as much as for regional powers like rival Saudi Arabia.
The deployment is “a signal of military strength, resolve and continued defiance to U.S. and U.N. Security Council efforts to end the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program,” said Jim Phillips, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Institute.
“What’s very important here is the timing of this move — and this naval muscle flexing comes after Iran’s missile test earlier this week, which was saber rattling that was meant to send the same signal as this naval dispatch.”
Phillips said Ahmadinejad was using the opportunity to thumb his nose at the U.S. and U.N. to advance his own popularity in Iran ahead of the country’s hotly contested June 12 election.
