Iran Set to Deploy 47th Flotilla of Warships to Indian Ocean

A senior Iranian military official has said that the country’s 47th flotilla of warships will be deployed to the Indian Ocean this month to protect the country’s cargo ships and oil tankers, according to Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards (I.R.G.C.), “The 46th flotilla, which was dispatched to the high seas some time ago, is now halfway through its mission and will return home in the coming days,” Rear Admiral Peyman Jafari Tehrani, the deputy commander of the Iranian Navy, said. According to F.N.A., the Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship off the coast of Yemen.

Comment: In recent years, the Iranian naval forces have significantly increased their presence in international waters. In April, Iran dispatched a flotilla of warships, which included intelligence-operations and logistics vessels, to the Gulf of Aden. The I.R.G.C. outlet pointed out that the deployment of naval forces to the Gulf of Aden was aimed at ensuring the security of naval routes for Iranian merchant vessels and oil tankers as well as “confronting the enemies’ negative propaganda and Iranophobic projects.”

The deployment of the Iranian flotillas comes amid increasing concern raised by the United States and the Saudi-led coalition about Iran’s support to the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen. It is also part of the Islamic Republic’s broader plan to increase its naval presence in international waters in the region and beyond. In a speech at the Khoramshahr Naval Base in southwest Iran in March, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that his forces “will have stronger presence in international waters, expand the area of the naval maneuvers, and develop production of equipment” in the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21. The Iranian Navy had also dispatched its 45th Group – which consisted of a ship and destroyer – to the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab in March. And last November, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, triggered alarm in the region after he said Iran sought to set up naval bases in Yemen and Syria.

U.S. naval officials have in recent months repeatedly complained about Iran’s hostile maritime actions that disrupt international navigation in the Persian Gulf. They have also warned that Iran’s provocative naval maneuvers increase the chance of miscalculation and unintended confrontation in the Gulf region. Recently, a U.S. warship sent helicopter gunships to deter Iranian speedboats that harassed a U.S.-led five-vessel flotilla as it entered the strategic Strait of Hormuz.