US destroyer departs from Iranian ships in Gulf of Aden

US P-3C Orion maritime surveillance planes and the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill immediately redirected their routes after the Iranian destroyer Alborz 72 warned them against coming within the standard five-mile distance of the Iranian Navy's 34th fleet, TASS cited the IRIB channel.

"We are duty-bound to monitor any foreign warships in international waters as well as anything that would threaten Iran’s national interests,” the commander of the 34th fleet, Captain Mostafa Tajeddini, noted.

He said that the presence of Iran’s 34th naval fleet on the high seas is in line with international law and they provide security for merchant vessels sailing through the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

"Since 2008, Iran has escorted some 2900 Iranian ships and had 180 armed confrontations with pirates. Iran also provided military assistance to 25 foreign ships," Iran’s Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, stressed.