Iran Warship Enters Increasingly Contested Red Sea Shipping Lanes

Tehran announced Monday it has sent a warship into the increasingly contested waters of the Red Sea as navies from other nations work to stem attacks from Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Iran’s frigate Alborz, launched in 1969 on completion by Vickers in the UK, will fly the country’s flag across the key shipping lanes.

In its report, Tasnim did not specify the details of the Alborz’s mission but highlighted what it claimed were the regional implications of Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

“Following rising tensions in the Gaza war, there has been an acceleration in developments in the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait,” it said, repeating words of action long pronounced by Tehran in its war with the west.

On Sunday, U.S. Navy helicopters sank three Houthi-operated vessels that had attacked a container ship in the Red Sea, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, as Breitbart News reported.

The UK defense minister warned on Monday that London is “willing to take direct action” against the Houthis.

The Alvand class was originally a class of four UK-designed and built frigates for the Imperial Iranian Navy in the late 1960s. Three still remain in service. A fourth was sunk by the U.S. Navy in 1988.  Here Alborz (72) and Sabalan (73) are seen here sailing together. (Iran Front Page/Wikipedia)

“We are willing to take direct action, and we won’t hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” Defense Secretary Grant Shapps wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

According to the outlet, Britain is collaborating with the U.S. for potential military strikes against the Houthis, and that a joint statement giving the militants a final warning to cease their attacks is imminent.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting vessels in the Red Sea since November to show their support for the Palestinian Islamist terrorist group Hamas in its war with Israel.

In response, many major shipping companies have switched to longer and more costly routes which avoid the area altogether.

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