Anti-piracy efforts by Iran
Iran’s Navy is ready to provide protection for foreign ships that may be targeted by sea pirates in international waters, says Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari.
“We also help ships belonging to any foreign country that is ambushed by sea pirates and requests help in the region,” Rear Admiral Sayyari said, quoted in an IRNA report on Friday.
“All Iranian and foreign ships that are under the escort of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Navy fleets, will safely pass through the region,” he added.
In line with international efforts against piracy, Iran’s Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008.
The Iranian Navy commander went on to say that Iran is among the countries that are independently carrying out anti-piracy activities in the Gulf of Aden and was one of the first countries to deploy fleets to the region to fight sea piracy.
“Iran’s Navy fleets have escorted almost 1,000 Iranian commercials ships and oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden… over the past two years,” he noted, adding that during the same period, 30 cases of heavy clashes have occurred between Iran’s Navy and sea pirates but no casualties or economic losses have so far been imposed on the vessels [escorted].
The Gulf of Aden — which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea — is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West through the Suez Canal.
The Iranian Navy has so far dispatched a number of military warships to the Gulf of Aden to guard Iranian and foreign vessels sailing in international waters.
In May, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) hailed Iran’s anti-piracy efforts as “effective.”
Undoubtedly, the whole sea community is indebted to those countries that have taken measures to counter piracy by deploying forces, IMO Secretary General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said.
Source: PressTV