A senior Iranian army commander said that the passage of two Iranian warships through the Suez Canal indicates the naval power of the Islamic Republic, reported Fars News Agency.
"Today we are witnessing that the Army has reached a status that its Navy's fleets of warships move miles away from Iran's coasts and are now in the Mediterranean Sea after passing through the Suez Canal," Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Brigadier General Abdul-Rahim Mousavi told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in the country's Southern port city of Bandar Abbas.
Two Iranian vessels, Khark and Alvand, crossed the Suez Canal, a strategic international shipping route in Egypt, on Tuesday.
Khark is a supply ship with 250 crewmembers and can carry three helicopters. Alvand is armed with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles.
Meantime, Mousavi stressed that the move by the Iranian Navy is in no way related to the recent political changes in Egypt or the other parts of the Middle-East.
In response to Israeli officials' comments about the Iranian Navy move, the commander stated that Israel was shocked by the presence of the Iranian naval ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
"That's why the regime (Israel) has launched propaganda against the Iranian Navy's peaceful presence in the region," Mousavi reiterated.
He added that the Iranian Navy will announce the deployment plan of the flotilla after the two ships reach the Syrian port city of Ladhiqiyah.