Russia, Iran kick off joint naval exercise in Caspian Sea
The Cradle, July 22, 2024 —
Iran and Russia have expanded their military cooperation in recent years
The Iranian and Russian navies began joint maritime security exercises in Iran’s territorial waters in the Caspian Sea on 22 July, TASS news agency reported.
“The maneuvers will involve both naval ships and naval aircraft, including the guided-missile destroyers Darafsh, Separ, and Paykan, two AB-212 helicopters, the ship Shahid Basir from the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC, Iran’s elite armed forces],” the Iranian spokesman for the drills, Captain 1st Rank Abbas Hassani, stated.
“The Russian ship SB-45 has recently entered Iran’s territorial waters and will take part [in the drills],” Tasnim News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.
Representatives of the navies of states bordering the Caspian Sea are present at the naval drills as observers, the spokesman said.
The first stage of the drills took place on Monday when the navies of Iran and Russia practiced extinguishing fire on a merchant vessel and rescuing its crew.
In May, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani met with his Russian and Chinese counterparts to discuss plans to broaden Tehran’s military and defense cooperation with Moscow and Beijing.
In the meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Ashtiani called for expanding military and defense interaction between Tehran and Moscow to ensure regional stability and security and counter unilateralism in the world, Tasnim reported.
Iran has also continued its maritime cooperation with Yemeni armed forces, which are engaged in a battle with the US and UK navies in the Red Sea.
Since November, Yemeni forces, led by the Ansarallah resistance movement, have sought to enforce a naval blockade on ships traveling through Yemeni waters in the Bab al-Mandab straight towards Israeli ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
Yemen has stated its forces are resisting Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The US and UK responded by sending warships to accompany Israeli and western commercial ships through the strategic straights. US and UK forces have bombed Yemeni ships as well as targets in the country’s capital, Sanaa.
On Thursday, Yemeni forces successfully attacked the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, with a suicide drone. Israel responded on Saturday by bombing oil storage facilities in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, causing major fires that continue to burn.