Iran Launches Four New Submarines

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Iranian navy has taken delivery of four new home-built submarines which are said to be in the home-produced Ghadir class. The vessels are to be positioned in the Persian Gulf, to help give some territorial protection to the country.

Iran already has some vessels patrolling its territorial waters – notably three Russian-built Kilo class diesel submarines which it acquired in the1990s, an Iranian built light submarine weighing about 500 tonnes (launched in 2006) and a Nahang.

The navy first launched seven sub of this category in 2007, and started building “Qaem” in 2008, which according to the country’s army chief, Ataollah Salehi, would be capable of operating in the high sea. The new vessel is said to be capable of firing torpedo and missiles.

The vessel has been described as stealth submarine and hardly detectable by sonar; it would be used for coastal operations especially in the shallow waters within the Gulf of Aden.

The country is already offering to give assistance to Lebanon and Syria. With tensions already high in the Middle East, offering to give assistance to Lebanon and Syria that are known to be aggressive toward Israel would make one ask if Iran does not have Israel in mind before going ahead to increase her naval presence in the Gulf.

Caution should be applied in handling the Iranian issue as it may worsen the already volatile situation in the Middle East. The country has of recent been talking tough on her desire to build a nuclear station; though the world has tried to dissuade her from going ahead with the plan, she is yet to soft pedal.

So launching four submarines at this critical time means the country is up to something. The world should therefore be careful the way it handles the case, especially now that America is thinking of carrying out some military exercise with South Korea. North Korea is already frowning at the plan: they have never hidden their hostility towards America.

It would be recalled that North Korea started in a similar manner by fortifying their military, building and refurbishing missiles which they hoped would reach America from Pyongyang. They went ahead eventually to declare they had finally developed nuclear weapon. Today, everyone living around North Korea – Japan, South Korea, China, etc now lives in palpable fears.

I still believe that sanctions would not achieve the desired result; the only way to take care of some of these aggressions is go to the dialogue table. The people should be made to see reasons why they should respect the United Nations’ Non-Nuclear proliferation treaty.

Besides, smaller countries should be reassured of their safety and security. America should reduce their Bossy attitude because it is making smaller countries to feel vulnerable; hence they are doing everything possible to create defense for themselves in case of external aggresion. When America learns to meddle less in other countries’ affairs, they would feel more relaxed and stop thinking of defending themselves at all cost.

The Arab league should prevail on Iran to shelve its plan to build a nuclear plant. They should realize that Israel would not be the only country to suffer the long term effect; other fellow Arab nations may be at the receiving end when the time comes. After all, Iraq and Iran fought for several years irrespective of the fact they’re both Islamic nations. Iraq also invaded Kuwait, a fellow Islamic country prior to the full-blown Gulf war. So there is no guarantee that Israel would be the only target of the nuclear attack in future; if Israel fails to provoke them, another fellow Islamic country may provoke them into using it.