Iran has approved plans to bolster its navy by building a new destroyer and diesel-electric submarines. The Islamic state says the destroyer would be the largest built by a Middle Eastern nation.

It currently operates three Russian-built diesel-electric submarines and a small assortment of aging British and American destroyers and frigates. Additionally, the Iranian navy has numerous smaller patrol craft that it uses in the Persian Gulf.

“The Iranian nation will see that we will manufacture the largest destroyer and the most advanced submarines in the region,” Iranian Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi told the Iranian-government controlled Fars News Agency.

Iran says these new warships will allow it to project its naval power far away from home in places such as in the Mediterranean Sea off the Israeli and Egyptian coasts.

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“The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy will regularly patrol oceans and will be dispatched to far distances,” Maj. Gen. Salehi said last Friday.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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