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Iran to set up new base in Indian Ocean

June 23, 2020 at 3:23 pm

Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy, Alireza Tangsiri [Twitter]

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced it plans to establish a permanent military base in the Indian Ocean by next March

The Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has tasked the IRGC with setting up a permanent presence in waters far away from the country, IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said yesterday.

Referring to repeated harassment by pirates and some foreign vessels for Iranian fishermen in the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean, he added: “The IRGC will no longer allow such encroachments in the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman.” The IRGC Navy has so far dispatched two naval flotillas to the Indian Ocean.

Currently the seaport of Chabahar, located in the country’s south-west on the Gulf of Oman, is Iran’s only oceanic port and is currently exempt from US imposed sanctions.

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