Iran recalls warships headed to US maritime border

Iran temporarily called off a plan to dispatch warships to the Atlantic Ocean, the country’s semi-official Fars news agency reported Sunday.

The outlet quoted Iran’s navy chief, Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, as saying such changes of naval plans are routine, “considering the situation in the region.”

Sayyari did not say why Iran changed the plan but said that “when piracy increases in the Gulf of Aden some changes will be applied in the assignments.”

He said another fleet would be sent to the Atlantic Ocean in the future, but did not elaborate.

Iran in January said it had launched two warships on a three-month voyage to the Atlantic to demonstrate the country’s ability to project power across the Middle East and beyond. The fleet consisted of a destroyer and a logistic helicopter carrier

The Islamic Republic considered the move as a response to US naval deployments near its own coastlines, Iran indicated. The US Navy’s 5th fleet is based in nearby Bahrain.

The commander of Iran’s Northern Navy Fleet, Admiral Afshin Rezayee Haddad, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying then that the vessels were headed for the edge of US waters.

“Iran’s military fleet is approaching the United States’ maritime borders, and this move has a message,” the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted him saying.

A US official said in February that “ships are free to operate in international waters” but expressed doubt that Iran would send ships close to US maritime borders, according to a Reuters report.

On Saturday, the lawyer for a former US marine said an Iranian court had overturned his death sentence, instead sentencing him to 10 years in prison.

Amir Hekmati, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in Arizona, was arrested in August 2011, then tried, convicted and sentenced to death for spying.