NOURNEWS - The Iranian foreign ministry warned the US officials to avoid miscalculations about the country’s warships in free waters which Washington claims might be heading to Venezuela.
“Iran is always present in international waters and has this right under international law and can be present in international waters,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Monday.
“No country can violate this right,” he underlined.
Khatibzadeh warned the US officials not to “make miscalculations”, and added, “Those who have sit in glass houses should be careful.”
His remarks came after the Politico magazine reported that “the US national security community is monitoring two Iranian naval vessels whose ultimate destination may be Venezuela”.
"An Iranian frigate and the Makran, a former oil tanker that was converted to a floating forward staging base, have been heading South along the East coast of Africa," it quoted three people familiar with the situation as saying.
The US officials do not know for sure the destination of the Iranian ships, these officials said, but believe they may be ultimately headed for Venezuela, the report added.
The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in free waters, specially the Gulf of Aden (which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea and is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal), since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.
According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.
NOURNEWS