The arrival this week to Rio de Janeiro of two Iranian warships that Brazil’s government authorized to dock has prompted rebukes both from Israel and the U.S.
“Israel sees the docking of Iranian warships in Brazil a few days ago, as a dangerous and regretful development,” the spokesperson of Israel’s foreign relations ministry, Lior Haiat, wrote Thursday on Twitter. “Brazil should not grant any prize to a malign state.”
Haiat’s comments followed others the day before by U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price. In response to a reporter’s question about the ships reaching Brazil, Price said that Washington is discussing the issue with Brazilian partners and that it wants to ensure Iran “is not able to acquire a foothold, is not able to take advantage of others in our hemisphere.”
“It is certainly not the case that the Brazilian government, the Brazilian people would want to do anything that would assist, that would aid a government, a regime that is responsible for a brutal crackdown and violent repression against its own people,” he added.
On Thursday, one of the two ships was spotted offshore Rio’s world-famous south zone of beaches, while the other was docked downtown. The IRIS Makran and IRIS Dena ships are authorized to stay in Rio until March 4.
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