Iranian ships dock in Syria port

Iranian warships have docked in the Syrian port of Tartus, Iranian media reported on Sunday. The Mehr news agency said the deployment caused “extreme worry for zionist forces,” al Jazeera television reported. Iranian officials usually refer to Israel as the “Zionist regime. Iran's English-language television station Press TV said two Iranian ships arrived at the port, which is home to Russia’s only Mediterranean naval base, on February 17. It also cited Hossein Ebrahimi, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, as saying that the presence of Iran’s naval forces in Syrian waters was a clear warning to the United States to refrain from military intervention in Syria. Iran's navy commander, Admiral Habibollah Sayari, announced on Saturday that the country's "strategic navy" passed through the Suez Canal for the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Sayari did not specify how many vessels were being deployed. Violence in Syria has continued over the weekend. On Saturday, troops fired mourners at a funeral in Damascus, killing at least one person. Earlier on Sunday, Egypt recalled its ambassador to Syria and Damascus was reported to have responded in kind. Human rights groups say the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad has claimed more than 7,000 lives. The government says around 2,000 members of its security forces have been killed combating “armed gangs and terrorists.”