Iran deploys warship to Red Sea amid soaring tensions
Al Jazeera
Alborz warship enters Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Iranian media reports a day after Yemen’s Houthis say 10 fighters killed.
Iran’s Alborz warship has entered the Red Sea through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Iran’s Tasnim news agency has reported, at a time of heightened tensions over the globally important waterway.
“The Alborz destroyer entered the Red Sea … by passing through the Bab al-Mandeb” waterway at the southern tip of the Red Sea, connecting with the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean, the news agency said on Monday.
It added that Iran’s naval fleet has been operating in the area “to secure shipping lanes, repel pirates, among other purposes since 2009”.
The United States in early December set up a multinational naval task force for the Red Sea following a flurry of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels on merchant vessels, which led shipping companies to suspend passages through the now highly militarised area.
