Iranian warships take southerly route, head for South Africa

The Iranian navy is doing this one the hard way.  The two ships in the “29th Flotilla” task group heading for the Atlantic Ocean will make their transit by the Cape of Good Hope, rather than going through the Mediterranean Sea.

According to Iranian authorities, the ships will stop in South Africa for a port visit on the way to the Atlantic.

They’re “doing it the hard way” because the Iranians don’t have a capability to do underway refueling.   On the African route,

Great news: The Iranians are coming

 

Iranian frigate Sabalan (FARS file image)

They’ve been saying they were going to do it, and now they’re on the way.  A pair of Iranian navy ships, the frigate Sabalan and supply ship Kharg, left Bandar Abbas this morning headed for the Atlantic Ocean.

It has been inevitable that the Iranian navy would make good on its promise to deploy to the Atlantic.  Its ships made a voyage to China in 2013, and have been conducting extended patrols in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea since late 2008.  An Atlantic expedition has been by no means beyond Iran’s capabilities for some time now.

Awesome news: Iran to deploy naval task force to the Atlantic Ocean

It is one of Dyer’s Axioms that a nation doesn’t change its naval posture because it is content with the status quo.  Iran continues to validate the axiom, and the latest announcement from her busy naval leadership is that the Islamic Republic will deploy a naval task force to the Atlantic in the near future as “part of a program to ply international waters.”

The development is not surprising, considering that Iran has maintained an antipiracy task force presence off Somalia for nearly three years now, sent a two-ship task force on an expedition to Syria earlier this year, and announced the deployment of a submarine to the Red Sea in June.

Granted,

Libya: Time for the Jaw, Jaw (Or, African Union to the Rescue)

It would be fascinating if it didn’t involve US troops and America’s reputation. Almost unnoticed by the US media, players in the Eastern hemisphere are actively planning to enliven the Libya situation with negotiations, which we can assume will quickly be dubbed “peace talks.”

The African Union has been maneuvering to gets talks going since Saturday, the first day of coalition air strikes. AU members are solidly opposed to the intervention in Libya and hope to end it with a brokered solution to the civil war. Their plan is to launch negotiations on Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (where the AU headquarters is hosted) and bring together representatives of Qaddafi’s government and the self-proclaimed Transitional Government of the rebels. Other nations’ representatives are thought to be invited; presumably the US will have at least a routine diplomatic presence.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon seems to think representatives of Qaddafi and the opposition intend to be at this AU-sponsored meeting.

France and Britain, meanwhile,