Commander: Message of peace carried to Russia by Iranian fleet of warships

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that the Iranian Navy warships which were sent to Russia a few weeks ago carried the message of peace and development of relations with Moscow. "The move was aimed at sending the message of peace and friendship to, and consolidating relations with Russia," Sayyari said. In relevant remarks earlier this month, Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Gholam Reza Khadem Biqam also assessed as positive the recent visit to the Russian port city of Astrakhan by an Iranian flotilla, and said, "We should wait to see this trend continue as more naval flotillas will be sent to Russia." Two Iranian Navy warships visited Astrakhan late in June and returned home early July. The Joshan (Shield) and Peykan (Arrow) vessels started their mission on June 25 navigating along the Caspian Sea and the Volga-Don Canal in Russia. "Two missile-launching warships which have been manufactured by the young Iranian experts and joined the Navy's fleet in 2003 and 2006 were for the first time dispatched to the Russian port of Astrakhan in the form of a flotilla," Deputy Commander of the Iranian Navy Admiral Siyavash Jarreh said after the flotilla left Iran's Caspian waters for Russia in late June. He further mentioned "consolidation of the friendly relations between Iran and Russia" as the goal of the mission, adding that the Navy also aims to display the might and increased knowledge and experience of its young personnel. The voyage by the Iranian warships spotlighted expansion of naval cooperation between Tehran and Moscow as almost a month earlier in mid April, a detachment of the Russian Pacific Fleet warships docked in Iran's Southern port city of Bandar Abbas. The Russian fleet, comprised of Admiral Panteleyev anti-submarine destroyer and two logistic warships of Peresvet and Admiral Novelskoy with a total number of 712 crews, entered the Army's first naval zone in Bandar Abbas on April 21. The Iranian army said that the visit was aimed at the consolidation of the relations between Iran and Russia and expansion of military interactions between the two countries in the field of naval security. The Voice of Russia had earlier reported that the Russian warships have left Vladivostok to do combat duty in the world oceans, and that they would have a short stop in Bandar Abbas en route to their mission zone. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced then that it has begun forming a separate Mediterranean squadron.