Australia closely monitoring Iran's destroyers passing through South Pacific

Canberra: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has been showing their naval strength for the past few days. Only last week, they conducted live-fire drills in the Strait of Hormuz. Now two destroyer vessels of the Iranian Navy have sailed into the South Pacific Sea. The Australian Navy reported keeping a close eye on Iran’s ships. Also, Australian analysts claim that Iran is demonstrating its strength and naval might through this manoeuvre.

Two Iranian naval destroyers, IRIS Makran and IRIS Dena, part of the 86th Flotilla, have been on a voyage since September. A month ago, these Iranian destroyers escorted a fuel tanker and later were docked at Jakarta port in Indonesia for a few days. Subsequently, they commenced their journey to the South Pacific. The Australian Defence Ministry has confirmed the presence of Iranian destroyers in the South Pacific.

Although the Iranian destroyers have not entered Australia’s territorial waters, the Australian Defence Ministry announced that it is keeping a close eye on the movements of these destroyers. Australia also clarified that the destroyer is likely to travel towards the Philippines. A few days earlier, the destroyer had passed near the Marquesas Islands, part of the French Polynesia archipelago in the South Pacific.

French Polynesia is known as the islands of France in the Indo-Pacific region. Therefore, the French Pacific Command contacted the Iranian ships to find out the reason for their presence. Alerted by this, Australia started surveillance of Iranian vessels. Earlier, Chinese destroyers had invaded Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, which created tension between Australia and China. Australia claimed that the Chinese destroyers were a threat to Australia’s security. Against this backdrop, the Australian Navy is increasingly wary of Iranian destroyer patrols.

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