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An Iranian destroyer and support vessel have reached the Atlantic Ocean and their destination is believed to be Venezuela, The Associated Press reported, citing U.S. officials.
The report identified the ships as the destroyer Sahand and the Makran, which has been described as an intelligence-gathering vessel. An Iranian admiral told The AP only that the mission is the longest and most challenging for its navy yet.
The admiral said the country’s navy is working to improve its “seafaring capacity and proving its long-term durability in unfavorable seas and the Atlantic’s unfavorable weather conditions.”
Ned Price, the spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said the U.S. is ready to respond and “leverage our applicable authorities, including sanctions, against any actor that enable Iran’s ongoing provision of weapons to violent partners into proxies.”
The voyage marks the first time Iran has been able to reach the Atlantic. CNN reported that Iran has “repeated its intention of sending navy warships to the Atlantic over the past few years.”
Iran said it has the right to sail in international waters and “no country is able to violate this right.”
The U.S. Naval Institute said in an earlier published analysis that “if the boats are delivered, they may form the core of an asymmetrical warfare force within Venezuela’s armed forces.”
“This could be focused on disrupting shipping as a means of countering superior naval forces,” the analysis read. “Shipping routes to and from the Panama Canal are near the Venezuelan coast.”
TRENDPOST: This is news? Or is it the U.S. media and Washington selling more of their “Let’s Fear and Hate Iran” agenda?
We note this article to illustrate the grand hypocrisy of the United States with some 800 military bases deployed in more than 150 countries around the world… and its massive naval fleet that patrols the oceans of the world.
Yet, one Iranian warship in the Atlantic Ocean is sold as a threat to the United States and its allies.