The United States is following warlike announcements by the Iranian regime that it has sent two military ships to Brazil that are also headed for the Panama Canal, where Tehran has declared it will establish a military presence.
A US State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday: “We are aware of these claims by Iran’s military. We continue to monitor Iran’s attempts to have a military presence in the Western Hemisphere.”
Iran’s regime-controlled news outlet Tehran Times reported on Saturday that “Iran’s 86th flotilla warships are now sailing along the western coasts of Latin America, the Navy’s second-in-command said.” .
Fox News Digital learned Tuesday from a Western security source that Iranian warships have yet to dock in Brazil.
Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, told Fox News Digital in a statement that “Iran’s growing presence in the Western Hemisphere should come as no surprise, given that the Biden Administration has a history of appeasing and engaging with authoritarian regimes. The ability Tehran’s decision to expand its military presence in our hemisphere should be a warning sign, especially as it seeks to support left-wing Marxist regimes that will undermine peace and stability throughout the region.”
The Iranian navy vessel Makran and another ship were reportedly on their way to dock in Rio de Janeiro.
(Royal Danish Air Force / AP)
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Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida, told Fox News Digital: “Iran has been aggressively strengthening its ties with the Western Hemisphere through like-minded socialist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. They are also looking for opportunities elsewhere and It is no coincidence that Iranian ships are docking in Brazil barely a month after a socialist retook power in the country.”
He added: “Instead of supporting pro-Iran socialist and left-wing regimes in Latin America, the Biden administration should strengthen political forces committed to keeping our hemisphere free of anti-Semitic terror.”
Iran’s regime has been ranked by successive administrations as the worst state sponsor of international terrorism in the world.
In early January, the commander of the Islamic Republic’s navy, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, told the Iranian regime-controlled Fars News: “We have been present in all the strategic straits of the world, and we have not been present in just two straits, in one of which we will be present this year, and we are planning to be present in the Panama Canal”.
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An Iranian navy official told regime media that Tehran plans to be “present” at the Panama Canal, above, this year. (Reuters/Carlos Jasso/File)
Military interference by the clerical regime in the vital shipping passage of the Panama Canal could harm US trade and shake the world economic market. A staggering 16 percent of the world maritime fleet is registered in Panama, based on deadweight tonnage.
The Tehran Times reported that Iranian Rear Admiral Hamzeh Ali Kaviani told the US-sanctioned Iranian news outlet Press TV that the flotilla of warships will dock in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kaviani added that “Iran’s military power is increasing day by day despite all the pressures against the Islamic Republic over the past 43 years.”
The Iranian regime newspaper added that Kaviani said that the navy’s 86th flotilla includes the Dena and the Makran and that the Dena is a Mowj-class warship that has been part of Iran’s navy since June 2021: “It is reports that the military vessel is equipped with anti-ship cruise missiles. , torpedoes and naval guns,” the news outlet wrote. “Makran is an advanced base ship weighing 121,000 tons. The warship can carry five helicopters and is employed to provide logistical support to combat warships.”
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The new Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, met with an Iranian delegation led by the country’s vice president during his inauguration ceremony last month. (Maira Erlich/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)
The same Western security source told Fox News Digital that Iran does not have a growing military presence in Central America. However, the same source said it noted concerns about Iran’s desire to project power in the Americas and that governments in the region need to compromise regarding Iran’s destabilizing international role.
Mojtaba Babaei, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital that “the presence of the Iranian navy in international waters is in accordance with international law and to gain knowledge, experience and increase capabilities, not against no country”.
The Consul General of Panama in New York told Fox News Digital that the Fox News query was forwarded to the Panamanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a response. The Consul General of Panama sent Fox News Digital a link to a statement from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama, Janaina Tewaney.
“It’s not true that we support terrorism,” Tewaney said in response to former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush’s opinion piece in the Washington Post in January.
Members of the Iranian army march during a parade. (Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl/File)
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Bush, who is a member of the Stand Up To Nuclear Iran advisory board, wrote that Panama “has been instrumental in [Iranian] continued survival of the regime” and that Panama is “strengthening Iran by helping it evade sanctions.” Bush also said that Panama assists Iran in smuggling oil.
Fox News Digital sent numerous press inquiries to the Brazilian government regarding Iran’s plans to dock warships in its ports, but no response was received at press time.
Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, met with an Iranian delegation led by the country’s vice president during his inauguration ceremony last month.
