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Iran's Tiny Navy Is Trying to Revive the Persian Empire
(Bloomberg) Adm. (ret.) James Stavridis - The Iranian navy announced it will undertake a five-month deployment to the western Atlantic, to include docking in Venezuela. It will undoubtedly be conducted in cooperation with the Russian navy, which has been increasing its patrols in the approaches to the continental U.S. It is also an indication of how Iranians truly believe themselves to be a global power. Iranians see themselves as the inheritors of the Persian Empire, which at its peak ruled nearly half of the world's population. Iran's navy has strong capabilities to create mischief in the Arabian Gulf and the northern Indian Ocean. Iran has stealthy diesel submarines, it employs swarming flotillas of small armed boats to threaten larger warships, and it is very good at employing mines to constrict shipping. But this new deployment to the distant waters off America is a concerning display of advanced capability and ambition. The writer is former military commander of NATO and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.