Iran's chief of staff General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri speaking at a military parade September 21, 2016 (Screen capture: Press TV)
Reuters: Iran may seek naval bases in Yemen or Syria: chief of staff
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran may seek to set up naval bases in Yemen or Syria in the future, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces said in remarks published on Sunday.
His comments, likely to be of concern to Shi'ite Iran's Sunni regional rival Saudi Arabia and its allies, raised the prospect of distant footholds perhaps being more valuable militarily to Tehran than nuclear technology.
"We need distant bases, and it may become possible one day to have bases on the shores of Yemen or Syria, or bases on islands or floating (bases)," said General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, quoted by the Shargh daily newspaper.
"Is having distant bases less than nuclear technology? I say it is worth dozens of times more," added Baqeri, who was speaking at a gathering of naval commanders.
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Update: Iran considers naval bases in Syria, Yemen (CBS/AP)
WNU Editor: I can hear the alarm bells ringing in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the U.S., and a lot of other places over the possibility of an Iranian naval base in Yemen or in Syria.
Update #2: Israel warned a few weeks ago that such an Iranian move would be unacceptable .... Israel: Iran should not base itself militarily in Syria (Al Jazeera).
LMAO.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Cold War, Soviet Foreign Naval Bases, were not a mean's of "projecting force", they were just a means of providing cheap warm winter vacations for Soviet Naval personel, and a means of conducting basic repairs to their breaking down vessels with out the long, expensive tow back to Russian homeports.
As the USN is learning with the Zumwalt, the Ford and the LCS,