Navy Commander:

Flotilla Continues Mission in Gulf of Aden

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Navy commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari on Saturday dismissed reports about a warning to Iranian ships in the Gulf of Aden, saying the flotilla is currently carrying out its mission in the strategic region.

Date: 25 April 2015 - 21:32

News ID: ۱۳۱۸۸

"The 34th fleet of the Iranian Navy is currently in the Gulf of Aden at the entrance to the Bab al-Mandab Strait and is patrolling the area and conducting its mission,” Sayyari said.
The statements came after a Pentagon spokesman claimed that the flotilla of nine Iranian naval and cargo ships was sailing in the direction of Iran.
"The (Iranian) ships have turned around ... Obviously what their onward plans are, we don't know,” U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter said.
"It is a welcome event because it does contribute to de-escalation and that's what we're trying to suggest to all the parties there, is the best course, and those parties include the Iranians," Carter said.
Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said earlier the flotilla was in international waters about midway along the coast of Oman on Friday and still headed northeast.
Warren declined to say the ships were going back to Iran or headed toward Iran. Warren said the U.S. military did not know their intent and the vessels could turn around at any point.
The 34th fleet of the Iranian navy, which comprises the Bushehr logistic vessel and Alborz destroyer, left the country’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas for the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandab Strait on April 8 in line with the Islamic Republic’s policy of safeguarding naval routes for vessels in the region.
Sayyari said improving security along Iran’s sea communications routes is one of the objectives of the country's naval forces.
U.S. defense officials have claimed that the Iranian flotilla was suspected of carrying weapons bound for Yemen.
Saudi officials had said their sailors would attempt to search the ships if they tried to dock in Yemen.
When the ships were first deployed earlier this month, Sayyari said that they were on a routine anti-piracy mission to protect shipping.
On Friday,  Iran's foreign ministry summoned the Saudi charge d’affaires to protest Riyadh's interception of two Iranian planes carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen, the Students News Agency ISNA reported.
ISNA said two Iranian cargo planes carrying food and medicine to Yemen had been forced by Saudi jets to leave Yemeni airspace, one on Thursday and another on Friday.
"Unfortunately, Saudi fighter jets have blocked two Iranian planes, which were carrying wounded Yemenis who had been treated in Iran and also carrying humanitarian and medical aid, from landing in Yemen and forced them to return home," ISNA quoted an unnamed Iranian official as telling the Saudi diplomat.
"This is brazen interference in Yemen’s state affairs and also a violation of Yemen's airspace."
Tasnim news agency said the foreign ministry also had complained to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) over Riyadh's blocking of the humanitarian aid sent to Yemen.
"The Iranian planes had the necessary permissions for flying the Oman-Yemen air route and had fully coordinated the plan with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies," it quoted deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian as saying.