Iranian warship enters Red Sea amid regional tensions

The Iranian Navy’s 94th flotilla of warships, comprising of Alborz destroyer, entered the Red Sea on Monday amid heightening tensions in the strategic maritime route, Tasnim news agency reported.

Since 2009, Iranian warships have been operating in open waters to “secure shipping lines, fight against pirates and carry out other missions”, it added.

The warship, overhauled and equipped with state-of-the-art systems, joined the Iranian Navy’s fleet in 2019.

The flotilla’s arrival in the Red Sea comes amid rising tensions following Yemen’s retaliatory attacks on Israeli-owned and -bound vessels in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In a stern statement on Sunday, Yemen’s Armed Forces warned the United States that Washington bears full responsibility for the consequences of a deadly attack by the US Navy on Yemeni boats in the Red Sea.

The warning came after earlier the same day US Navy helicopters attacked four boats belonging to the Yemeni Naval Forces, sinking three of them and killing at least 10 Yemeni servicemen.

Yemen’s Armed Forces have been staging missile and drone attacks against vessels heading to Israeli-occupied ports in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been under an unrelenting genocidal war by the Israeli regime for more than two months now.