Two Iranian warships enter Mediterranean Sea - Ottawa Citizen

Iran sent two warships to the Mediterranean Sea Saturday as tensions with Israel worsened and a senior American official arrived in Tel Aviv.

Iranian ships passed through the Suez Canal for only the second time since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Reports last night said they had docked in Tartus, the main port for Iran's embattled ally regime, Syria, which has been convulsed by an uprising for almost a year.

"The strategic navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has passed through the Suez Canal for the second time since the (1979) Islamic revolution," said navy Commander Adml Habibollah Sayari.

He claimed that Iran was showing its "might" to regional countries - with Israel the country that Iran wants to impress the most. The admiral claimed that the mission sent a "message of peace and friendship." Israel immediately put its navy on alert.

The deployment raised tensions with Israel at a dangerous time, with speculation growing that airstrikes are being prepared against Iran's nuclear program.

Dan Fayutkin, an Israeli Defence Force officer and expert in military strategy, said that the movement of Iranian vessels into the Mediterranean Sea risked starting a war.

"Any military move made now by either Israel or Iran would be hostile," he said.

Iranian spokesmen did not say how many vessels had passed through the canal, or what missions they were planning, but said the flotilla had previously docked in the Saudi port of Jeddah. Two Iranian ships, the destroyer Shahid Qandi and supply vessel Kharg, docked in the Red Sea port on Feb. 4, according to Iranian media.

In February last year two Iranian vessels passed through the Suez Canal soon after Egypt's uprising for the first time since 1979.

Iran's navy has been used for sabre rattling several times in recent months, especially in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where it faces powerful American naval forces.

A series of assassinations in Iran of nuclear scientists, and terrorist attacks against Israeli diplomats in New Delhi and Bangkok in the past week, have raised tensions between the two enemies to new levels.

Hours after the ships passed through the canal, the U.S. National Security Adviser, Tom Donilon, arrived in Israel for talks with senior officials about Iran and the crisis in Syria. Senior U.S. officials have warned in recent weeks that Israeli opinion is starting to favour the airstrike option.