BY: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

   

A strong navy is vital for safeguarding not just the territorial waters of a country but also for ensuring safety of maritime trade routes in international waters in order to thwart the threats posed by modern-day pirates who thrive with the support of such super corsairs, as the US.

Thanks to the Islamic Revolution, Iran has left no stone unturned to build a powerful navy and emerge as the paramount seafaring power in West Asia in view of its strategic location and the devilish designs of the US and other western regimes in the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea and the northern part of the Indian Ocean.

If not for the alertness of Iran’s state-of-the-art electronic surveillance system fitted on its ships and submarines, the nuclear-powered American submarine which recently tried to pass stealthily through the Hormuz Strait would not have detected and forced to surface.

Today, Iran’s naval presence in not limited to the international sea lanes mentioned above, but has spread to the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. 

For instance, in January 2023, the Iranian Navy sailed near the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with a message of peace and friendship for the Pacific region.

The ships involved were the IRIS Makran and the frigate IRIS Dena, both of which belong to the 86th flotilla of the Iranian Navy. These vessels had made a stopover in Indonesia in November 2022 after leaving Iran in September of the same year.

In December, the two ships crossed from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean sailing past French Polynesia, en route to the southern Marquesas Islands.

The Iranian naval presence in the Oceania-Pacific region aims to reaffirm Tehran’s eastern strategy vis-à-vis US hegemonic influence by seeking multipolar partnerships on the international stage. 

The Islamic Republic pursues a multidimensional foreign policy that includes Africa and Latin America, among other regions. In Asia, Iran aims to strengthen its ties with non-Western powers such as Russia and China, both of which are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

In other words, Tehran wishes to counter US influence in areas perceived as American interest zones, such as Latin America and the South Pacific.

This strategy is based on the presence of Iranian naval forces in strategic straits such as the Panama Canal. Thus, command centres have been set up by the Iranian Navy for the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans.

In line with this policy of safeguarding the interests of the Free World, Iran has been conducting joint naval exercises with Russia, China, and other independent countries. 

For China, maritime relations with Iran send a clear message to the US which is trying to destabilize the South China Sea, while allowing Iran to develop naval diplomacy not only with Russia and China but also with other states such as Indonesia.

According to international analysts, this naval diplomacy makes it possible to advance Iran’s objective to join the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa bloc), and develop the strategy to circumvent the illegal sanctions, or more properly the economic terrorism of the US and West European regimes.