(2/2011) Iranians In The Suez: Deal With It

Rick Francona–

There is currently a lot of conflicting information in the news media over the possibility that two Iranian warships might transit the Suez Canal en route ports in Syria. Syria and Iran are close allies and are signatories to a mutual defense pact. Cooperation between the two countries includes intelligence sharing, joint training, as well as material support of Hizballah in neighboring Lebanon. It should come as no surprise that Iranian navy ships would conduct visits to Syrian ports.

As soon as word of the planned deployment was made public, senior Israeli military and civilian officials warned that the Iranian move was a provocation, and responded with a thinly-veiled threat that “Israel will know how to deal with it.”

Here’s some friendly advice to my Israeli friends: Yes, deal with it.

When I say “deal with it,” I mean it in the sense that there is nothing you should do about it. As anyone familiar with my writing knows, I am not a supporter of the Iranian regime, in fact, I have been accused of “being obsessed” with Iran. (See an earlier article,

Obsessed with Iran? Me?)

Of course, your navy should monitor the ships’ movements and conduct reconnaissance of them as they move north along the Israeli coast to one of the three Syrian ports with naval facilities: Baniyas, Tartus or Latakia. Photograph them, intercept their electronic emissions and communications, approach within a safe distance, but that’s it. As long as they stay 12 nautical miles off your coast, they have every right to be there.

For years, the U.S. Navy has conducted what are called “freedom of navigation” operations, known in the Navy as “FONOPS.” In FONOPS, American warships sail along coastlines of countries that claim more than the internationally recognized limits of territorial waters, in most cases, 12 nautical miles. We also operate military aircraft in what is international airspace but claimed by other nations – I have participated in some of these operations. We use these operations to assert, claim and demonstrate our right to sail in international waters and to fly in international airspace. There have been confrontations during these operations, most notably with the Libyans. When there have been confrontations, it has not gone well for the Libyans.

The U.S. Navy has conducted these operations in the very same waters from which you (Israel) want to restrict movement of these two Iranian warships. Neither we nor you can have it both ways. No one wants hostile foreign warships within sight of their coastal cities, but it is their right to be there.

They also have every right to transit the Suez Canal. According to the treaty that governs passage through the canal, all vessels have the right to use the waterway. The governing treaty is the Constantinople Convention of the Suez Canal (1888), which is still in force. Article One of that treaty states, “The Suez Maritime Canal shall always be free and open, in time of war as in time of peace, to every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag.”

On a personal note, in 1992, I was the defense attache at an American embassy in a Gulf nation, and remember the brouhaha that ensued when the Iranians used the Suez Canal to take delivery of a Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarine from the Russians. There was a huge cry of outrage and concern, but under the treaty, they had every right to use the waterway, and did.

The Egyptian Suez Canal Authority has refused passage for safety reasons, and the Egyptian Ministry of Defense reserves the right to refuse passage to vessels flying the flag of a nation at war with Egypt. While this clause was useful while Egypt and Israel technically remained in a state of war until 1978, that U.S. Navy and the Israeli Navy now often send warships through the canal.

Israel has a capable navy, easily the most capable in the eastern Mediterranean. Two Iranian gunboats are not a serious threat to Israel’s national security. They will sail up the coast, yes, it will be provocative, and yes, it will be a finger in Israel’s eye, but that’s the price of living in a world with international laws and norms.

Like I said, deal with it.

Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, a veteran of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, and service in the Balkans. His assignments include the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency, with tours of duty in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, and operational duties in virtually every country in the Middle East.

During the last year of the Iran–Iraq war in 1988, Rick was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as a liaison officer to the Iraqi armed forces intelligence service, where he served in the field with the Iraqi army and flew with the Iraqi Air Force.  

Throughout the first Gulf War he served as the personal Arabic interpreter and advisor on Iraq to General Norman Schwarzkopf and later co-authored the report to Congress on the conduct of the war.  His is the author of  book, Ally to Adversary – An Eyewitness Account of Iraq’s Fall from Grace.

Following the Gulf War, Rick served as the first air attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria until 1995.  In 1995 and 1996, Rick served in northern Iraq with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he narrowly escaped an attempt on his life by Iraqi agents.  In 1997 and 1998, he served in the Department of Defense counter terrorism branch and led a special operations team in Bosnia that captured five indicted war criminals.

From 2003 through 2008, Rick was a Middle East military analyst for NBC News.  You’ll find Lt. Col Francona online at http://francona.blogspot.com/

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