Iran deploys warships to the Mediterranean

Tehran: Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean after crossing the Suez Canal yesterday to show Tehran's might to regional states, the navy commander said, at a time of simmering tensions with Israel.

"The strategic navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has passed through the Suez Canal for the second time since the [1979] Islamic Revolution," Admiral Habibullah Sayari said in remarks quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

He did not say how many vessels had passed through the canal, or what missions they were planning to carry out in the Mediterranean, but said the flotilla had previously docked in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah.

Two ships reported

Two Iranian ships, the destroyer Shahid Qandi and supply vessel Kharg, had docked in the Red Sea port on February 4, according to Iranian media.

Sayari said the naval deployment to the Mediterranean would show "the might" of the Islamic republic to regional countries, and also convey Tehran's "message of peace and friendship".

The first Iranian presence in the Mediterranean in February 2011 provoked strong reactions from Israel and the US, with former putting its navy on alert.

In that deployment, two Iranian vessels, a destroyer and a supply ship, sailed past Israel's coast and docked at Latakia port in allied Syria before returning home.