Tuesday, November 24, 2009
"Why don't the coalition forces, which enjoy super hi-tech equipment, annihilate the buccaneers of the region forever and why do they provide the ground for the continuation of their activities through their suspicious supports?" Commander of Iran's first Naval Zone Fariborz Qaderpanah asked, speaking in a detailed interview with FNA on Tuesday.
Noting that many analysts believe that there are secret hands at work which are disturbing security in the Gulf of Aden, Qaderpanah lamented that certain countries which are the root cause of insecurity in the region make suspicious statements to justify their presence.
Elsewhere, he further stated that pirates' experience and practice as well as the hi-tech weaponry supplied by the western states to the pirates have rendered them so skillful that they can now grab a vessel at the earliest.
Earlier on Monday, Qaderpanah had said that at present 30 battleships and gunboats from different countries are deployed in the Gulf of Aden.
The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.
The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.
The Iranian Navy recently dispatched fourth fleet of its warships to the Gulf of Aden to defend the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against continued attacks by the Somali pirates.
According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.
Source: FNA, Nov 24, 2009