Iranian naval ships cross Suez Canal into Mediterranean Sea

TEHRAN, Feb. 19 (MNA) – Iranian Navy’s 18th fleet of warships, comprised of a destroyer and a supply ship, has sailed through Egypt’s Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea, the Navy commander announced on Saturday. “As the Navy affected the region with its presence in the Mediterranean Sea last year, the Navy’s 18th fleet will in the best way carry the message of peace and friendship to regional countries and display the might of the country and the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said during a meeting with a number of Navy commanders and personnel. The naval fleet will prove that enemies’ sanctions against the Islamic Republic have neither hindered Iran’s scientific progress nor decreased the country’s military capability, he said. Sayyari added that one of the goals of the mission is to provide training to students of the Imam Khomeini Naval Academy, which is located on the Caspian Sea in Noshahr, Mazandaran Province. Reuters also reported on Saturday that two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal on Thursday following permission from the Egyptian armed forces. It is the second time that an Iranian naval fleet has entered the Mediterranean Sea since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Two Iranian warships passed through the strategic waterway on February 17 last year and docked in Syria after sailing across the Mediterranean Sea.