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Iranian Warship Alborz Enters the Red Sea

File photo: The Alborz destroyer fires cruise missiles during naval maneuvers by the Iranian army in the Gulf of Oman. (IRNA)
File photo: The Alborz destroyer fires cruise missiles during naval maneuvers by the Iranian army in the Gulf of Oman. (IRNA)
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Iranian Warship Alborz Enters the Red Sea

File photo: The Alborz destroyer fires cruise missiles during naval maneuvers by the Iranian army in the Gulf of Oman. (IRNA)
File photo: The Alborz destroyer fires cruise missiles during naval maneuvers by the Iranian army in the Gulf of Oman. (IRNA)

Iran's Alborz warship has entered the Red Sea, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, at a time of soaring tensions on the key shipping route amid the Israel-Hamas war and attacks on vessels by forces allied to Tehran.
Tasnim did not give details of the Alborz's mission but said Iranian warships had been operating in open waters to secure shipping routes, combat piracy and carry out other tasks since 2009.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting vessels in the Red Sea since November to show their support for the Palestinian group Hamas in its war with Israel.
In response, many major shipping companies have switched to the longer and more costly route around the Africa's Cape of Good Hope rather than pass through the Suez Canal, which handles about 12% of global trade.
The Alborz warship entered the Red Sea via the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Tasnim said, without saying when. There were unconfirmed reports on social media it arrived late on Saturday.
The Alvand class destroyer had been a part of the Iranian navy's 34th fleet, alongside the Bushehr support vessel, and patrolled the Gulf of Aden, the north of the Indian Ocean and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait as far back as 2015, according to Iran's Press TV.
The US Fifth Fleet said it could not speak for the Iranian Navy or comment on the unconfirmed reports of the Iranian vessel's movements.
Houthi militants attacked a Maersk container vessel with missiles and small boats on Saturday and Sunday, prompting the company to pause all sailing through the Red Sea for 48 hours.
The head of Iran's Navy, Shahram Irani, was quoted in Iranian media on Dec. 2 saying that the Alborz was carrying out missions in the Red Sea.
Iran's Defense Minister, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, said on Dec. 14 in reference to the Red Sea that "nobody can make a move in a region where we have predominance".
Peace Talks Are Welcomed
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian held talks with the spokesman for the Houthi group Mohammad Abdul-Salam in Tehran on Sunday.
IRNA news agency reported that they discussed issues of mutual interest and regional matters.
Moreover, Ahmadian praised the Houthis recent activities in the Red Sea.
Iranian foreign minister’s senior advisor for special political affairs Ali Asghar Khaji met Monday with the Houthis chief negotiator Mohammad Abdul Salam, and he hailed the progress made in the Yemeni peace talks.
They stressed the need to find a political solution to the Yemen crisis, according to IRNA.

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Azerbaijan Pays Tribute to Pilots, Passengers who Perished in Air Crash

People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
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Azerbaijan Pays Tribute to Pilots, Passengers who Perished in Air Crash

People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov

Azerbaijan on Sunday paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan killing 38 people after Russian air defenses were used against Ukrainian drones.

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were attacking several cities.

Captain Igor Kshnyakin and co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov, both ethnic Russians with Azerbaijan citizenship, and Hokuma Aliyeva, a flight attendant, were given full honors at a ceremony at the Alley of Honor in central Baku attended by President Ilham Aliyev and his wife, Mehriban.

The pilots have been lauded in Azerbaijan for landing in a way which allowed 29 people to survive but led to their own deaths.

Azerbaijan's presidential office said that after the yet-to-be explained incident over Russian airspace, the pilots battled to control the plane - desperately trying to find a landing spot, Reuters reported.

With holes in the fuselage, some crew injured, passengers praying for their lives in a de-pressurized cabin and the plane spiraling out of control, the pilots flew across the Caspian Sea towards their death in an crash landing.
"Only through the courage and professionalism of the pilots was an emergency landing successfully carried out," Azerbaijan's presidential office said.
The Alley of Honor is Azerbaijan's most sacred modern burial ground - where prominent politicians, poets and scientists are laid to rest, including Heydar Aliyev, the late father of the current president.
Captain Kshnyakin's daughter, Anastasia Kshnyakina, said her father was a dedicated pilot who took his responsibilities to his passengers extremely seriously.
"My father always said: when I take off, I am responsible not only for my life, but also for the lives of all passengers and crew members," Kshnyakina said.
"With his last flight, he proved what a true hero should be."
Russia's Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan's president for a "tragic incident" in Russian airspace involving the plane which Baku said crashed after some sort of external interference.
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down.
The extremely rare publicized apology from Putin was the closest Moscow has come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened.
The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.