The bulk of the nine days was spent docked in Lattakia, Syria, for a port visit.
The two Iranian ships did not sail around the Mediterranean showing the flag. They entered the Mediterranean February 23 and sailed straight to Lattakia. After the visit there, they sailed straight back to the Suez Canal, entering it March 3.
No one would have noticed if it hadn’t been for Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lie-berman, who screamed and pounded his chest when he learned the ships were approaching the Suez Canal.
Foreign Minister Ehud Barak had reportedly wanted to ignore the visit and treat it as insignificant.
The impact of Lieberman’s outbursts was to make it sound like the visit was militarily significant, thereby providing the Islamic Republic with just the endorsement it wanted.
When the ships left the Mediterranean, Lieberman was silent, apparently convinced that he had erred in publicizing the visit for Iran.
The two ships were the small frigate Alvand, displacing 1,500 tons, and the unarmed supply ship Kharg, which at 33,000 tons was 22 times bigger than the warship for which it was carrying supplies.
The main concern of the Israelis was not the frigate but the supply ship, which they were concerned might be bringing arms for Hezbollah in Lebanon. But the Israelis indicated the Egyptians had checked out the vessel when it entered the Suez Canal and reported it was not carrying arms. After that, no one in Israel cared.
Iran said the warship was carrying naval cadets on a break-in cruise. It said the two ships would be at sea for one year with the cadets mastering techniques to be used in confronting piracy around Somalia.
Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the commander of the Iranian Navy, touted the visit to Lattakia as a huge achievement. He said the presence of the ships in distant waters was proof that the Islamic Republic and its naval forces have defied sanctions by turning threats into opportunities. He said the fact that the Iranian flag was hoisted in waters 8,000 kilometers from home shows Iran’s potential and capabilities.
That was a slight exaggeration as Lattakia is actually a 6,000-kilometer sail from the Navy’s base at Bandar Abbas. Furthermore, Iran’s merchant ships have raised Iran’s flags all over the globe for years—or at least they did until recently, when Iran began reflagging the ships to hide their ownership and avoid sanctions.
As for Israel, Sayyari said it had tried to contact the Iranian ships as they sailed back to the Suez Canal. He said an Israeli radio operator asked the ships to identify themselves. But Iran had radioed back, “It’s none of your business” and continued sailing.
Ship IDs are a normal courtesy at sea. The Iranian Navy regularly radios US Navy ships for IDs and receives them. US Navy officers say the Iranian Navy routinely and courteously responds to US radio messages for ship IDs.