September 15, 2023
The Iranian Navy’s circumnavigation of the globe has now been completed, but without coming anywhere near the Panama Canal as promised last year.
The two navy ships spent eight months sailing around the world, less time than it took Ferdinand Magellan’s three-year Portuguese expedition in 1519-22, the first circumnavigation of the globe. The Iranian ships made only six stops along the way in Mumbai, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Mombassa and Salalah in Oman. The Portuguese made many, many more five centuries ago as theirs was a trip of exploration.
When the Iranian Navy last year announced the start of its round-the-world trip, it said it would “establish a presence at the Panama Canal.” It did not say it would go through the canal, just that it would “establish a presence” there whatever that meant. Many assumed the goal was to tweak the United States. But the Americans haven’t owned or operated the Canal since 1997, when it was turned over to Panama.
At any rate, the two Iranian ships never got anywhere near the Panama Canal. The Iranian Navy’s map of the route it took showed its closest point to the canal was about 4,300 miles (7,000 kilometers) away.
The unanswered question is why the Navy didn’t send the two ships any closer to the Panama Canal, when it had publicly announced the vessels would “establish a presence” at the canal. There was speculation the government ordered a change for fear the presence would make the Americans angry and prompt them to take some action against the ships.
The ships were the small, 1,700-ton frigate Dena, a warship, and the 125,000-ton supply ship Makran, the largest vessel in the Iran Navy, but not a warship.
The pair left Bandar Abbas September 28 of last year and returned to the same port May 20 of this year.
The Islamic Republic gave much publicity to the trip, though it stopped talking about the Panama Canal while the ships were in the Pacific and before they got anywhere near the canal.
The regime’s publicity organs spoke repeatedly about how the trip showed the world how strong Iran was.
For example, Tehran Friday prayers leader Mohammad-Hassan Abu-Torabi-Fard said May 26 that the trip showed the knowledge, expertise, bravery and unique capacity of Iran’s Navy. “Sea power is a set of sea-related capabilities that can control waters and vital resources at sea and prevent enemies from accessing them. The goal is maritime supremacy and today the Navy of the Islamic Republic is in this position.” He didn’t explain how a brief passage of a point gave Iran “maritime supremacy” of that point.
Maj. Gen. Mohammad-Hossain Baqeri, the head of all of Iran’s armed forces, lauded the naval accomplishment, saying, “Even major countries do not have the courage to undertake such a task.” Actually, many navies have circumnavigated the globe and commercial ships do it all the time. The US Navy first did it in 1908-09.
Iranian admirals have for years said the United States has no right to sail in the Persian Gulf because that is so far from the United States. “You are damn wrong to be present in our region,” said Rear Admiral Ali-Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Pasdar maritime force, as recently as May 27. But Iranian admirals now say Iran has the right to sail in all the waters of the globe, even those just off the United States. The Americans say every navy has the right to sail in international waters all around the world.
Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, commander of Iranian Navy, said that the round-the-world trip of the two Iranian Navy ships confirmed that the US-led world order has been replaced by a multi-power world order, with new alliances being formed and more countries beginning to display their might.
As for the two ships’ failure to transit the Panama Canal, Adm. Irani claimed that the ships had gone through the canal. In a speech May 14, Irani said, “They [the Americans] could not even prevent the flotilla from sailing into the Panama Canal. This was another slap in the face of the Great Satan.” But the Iranian Navy’s own map of its trip showed the ships never got close to the canal.
