Note to media and government: For a full copy of this report, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to media@memri.org. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.
September 27, 2011, Iranian Army naval commander Habibollah Sayyari stated that Tehran would soon deploy its navy in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the U.S. Sayyari explained, "Like the arrogant powers [i.e., the U.S.] that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to the American marine borders."
Already in mid-July 2011, Sayyari announced that Tehran was examining the possibility of dispatching a naval fleet to the Atlantic to be armed, he said, with "Nour" long-range anti-ship cruise missiles, as an extension of its presence in the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the southern Indian Ocean.
It should be emphasized that in early July 2011, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Ali Jafari, said in an interview with the Mehr news agency that the IRGC was prioritizing the strategy "of developing Iran's defensive capability on the open seas." He added that this meant that "if the enemy plans to pose a threat to the Islamic Republic of Iran from outside the Strait of Hormuz, [Iran] is capable of taking reciprocal action," in addition to closing the strait.
It should be noted that the navy of the Iranian Army is in charge of engaging foreign forces, while the IRGC navy is charged with securing the Islamic regime at home. In February 2011, Tehran sent an Iranian Army naval force to Syria via the Suez Canal.
...The full text of this post is available to subscribers.
Please login or register to request subscription information from MEMRI
