By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

The round-the-world voyage by an Iranian flotilla is not just a feather in the cap of the Islamic Republic but is the first instance of circumnavigating the globe by any Muslim fleet.

The Arabs who in the heyday of the Islamic civilization had sailed as far as the coasts of China and Japan in the east, and may have also landed on the eastern coast of the hitherto undiscovered Americas never made a round-the-world trip, as attested by historical documents.

The next major Muslim sea power, the Ottomans, for whom the Mediterranean Sea was a Turkish lake and whose ships used to raid the coasts of the English Channel in the north, and in the east had fought sea battles with the Portuguese off the coast of India with the sultans of Gujarat, also have no record of sailing around the world.

The undeniable facts makes the 8-month cruise the Dena destroyer and the Makran forward base ship through the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans, and berthing on the way at the ports of the three continents of Asia, America, and Africa, while skirting past Australia, more significant than what appears on the paper.

More important, the 65,000 km trip was achieved in the face of the illegal US sanctions and that too by ships built exclusively by Iran and equipped with the latest marine technology, without the least reliance on any foreign power.

Thus, what Major-General Mohammad Baqeri, the senior most Iranian military commander, says, while welcoming home the adventurous seafarers at the port of Bandar Abbas is not any exaggeration!

His words which make all pious and patriotic Iranian proud of achievements on the high seas of the Iranian naval personnel are indeed further encouragement for more significant trips around the world.

“The 86th flotilla of the Navy fulfilled a historic mission. Even major countries in the world do not have the courage to undertake such a [formidable] task.

It is obvious the enemies of the Islamic Republic are not just bewildered but at the end of their wits, as is clear from what the Americans and the Israelis grumble.

They cannot do anything more and should be ready for more surprises, in view of the latest announcement by the Iranian navy of another record-breaking voyage to Antarctica and the South Pole.

These are all peaceful missions, since Iran has no military ambitions and is definitely not a threat to any country. 

At the same time, the Islamic Republic is determined to safeguard not just its sovereignty and territorial integrity, but its interests in the region and the world against the threats posed by the buccaneering Americans or Europeans who have no right to base their militaries in our part of the world.