Iran sends armada to protect Gulf of Aden

YEMEN - Preserving shipping security in the pirate-ridden Gulf of Aden, the Iranian navy sends a new armada of warships to fight Somali buccaneers.

A senior naval commander, Fariborz Qaderpanah, said Wednesday that the navy has decided to send more ships to the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian merchant containers and oil tankers from Somali pirates in the volatile waters.

“The dispatch would be Iran's fourth,” said Qaderpanah, and would include the Alborz warship and the Bushehr logistic vessel.

The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.

The Gulf of Aden — which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea — is an important energy corridor, particularly because the Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West through the Suez Canal.

According to US Department of Energy estimates, the water way is the quickest transit point for ships laden with some 3.3 million barrels of crude — almost 4% of daily global demand.

In a report published last year, the Times reasoned that the West's age-old policy of marginalizing Somalia's endemic poverty is the main reason behind the sudden increase in piracy off Somalia's coast.

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