Iran’s new naval commander has vowed to dispatch warships to the doorstep of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, according to reports.
“Our fleet of warships will be sent to the Atlantic Ocean in the near future and will visit one of the friendly states in South America and the Gulf of Mexico,” Rear Adm. Hossein Khanzadi said.
Iran will likely use the warships’ visit to South America to advance its relationship with Venezuela, a US adversary, the outlet reported.
Khanzadi promised last week that his navy would “wave the flag of our country in the Gulf of Mexico,” NBC News reported.
He said “the appearance of our vessels in the Mediterranean and Suez Canal shocked the world and the US also made comments on it.”
While Iran’s naval forces pose no real threat when up against the US Navy, Khanzadi said that new vessels and submarines will be introduced next year to bolster the fleet.
This isn’t the first time Iran’s military has said it would send its ships into the Gulf of Mexico.
Khanzadi’s predecessor, Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, said in 2014 that Iran planned to send ships near the US to counter the American presence in the Persian Gulf.
Sayyari later said the sailings had been canceled “due to a change in schedule.”
The US Navy’s 5th fleet is based in Bahrain across the Persian Gulf, where American and Iranian ships have clashed in recent years.
Read full article on New York Post, by Yaron Steinbuch, November 28, 2017.