Photo Courtesy of UN Photo/Marco Castro
With ongoing tensions with the United States and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program in the background, Tehran last week announced the intention to send a naval presence near US territory. According to the Iranian Fars News Agency, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari was quoted as saying, “Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to the American marine borders.”
Iran in recent months sent naval vessels into the Mediterranean Sea through the Egyptian Suez Canal. However, sending ships or submarines thousands of miles away to the US maritime borders would be a significant escalation in Iran’s projection of naval power.
Fars noted that Sayyari did not clarify what that presence would look like or when it could begin. The Iranian news service did recall Sayyari’s comments in July regarding plans to send “a flotilla into the Atlantic.”
Meanwhile, on Sunday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for everyone in the Israel-Palestinian conflict to “go home” as part of the ongoing denial of the Jews’ historic right to Israel. He said the “Zionist occupiers” should leave Israel, which he termed “Palestine.”
Fars quoted Ahmadinejad as saying, “Some poor people were brought to Palestine on the promise of security and jobs while they turned the Palestinian people into refugees… So now Palestinians should go home and those brought to Palestine should go to theirs.”
Ahmadinejad followed up on those “go home” comments by calling today for efforts to “free every span” of Israel from the Israeli “regime.”
Ahmadinejad has routinely railed against the Israeli “regime,” which he refers to as “Zionist.” Ahmadinejad also has denied the Holocaust and suggested conspiracy theories regarding the September 11 terror attacks.
The Iranian leader was strongly rebuked by the US following his speech last month at the United Nations General Assembly, with a US statement saying he “again turned to abhorrent anti-Semitic slurs and despicable conspiracy theories.”
(By Staff, www.themideastupdate.com, October 3, 2011)