Iran Sends Warships to International Waters

On Friday, Admiral Shahrami Irani, the commander of the Iranian Naval Forces, announced the dispatch of two warships on a training mission in international waters.

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"It is a pride that the strategic Iranian Navy is active in international and oceanic waters despite the plots of the enemies," Admiral Irani said during the departure ceremony of the ships in the city of Bandar Abbas.

The mission aims to "transfer experience and naval training to students of the Naval Forces so that they can solemnly carry out Navy missions in the near future," he said, referring to the actions that the Tonb and Bushehr ships will perform.

This mission deployment comes amid high tensions in the Red Sea, where Yemen's Houthi rebels are attacking merchant ships in retaliation for Israel's war in Gaza.

In response, the United States and the United Kingdom have conducted bombings against Yemen, without achieving an end to the attacks in the Red Sea.

Earlier this month, Iran sent the warship Alborz to that area. Subsequently, the Iranian Navy seized the tanker "St. Nikolas" in the Sea of Oman, flying the flag of the Marshall Islands and owned by the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation.

This vessel, formerly named "Suez Rajan," was involved in a year-long dispute in which the U.S. Department of Justice ended up seizing one million barrels of Iranian crude it was transporting.