Egypt allows Iranian warship through Suez despite U.S. objection

Egypt has again allowed an Iranian Navy ship to pass the Suez Canal toward Syria. A senior official said the Egyptian Navy approved the passage of an Iranian ship loaded with weapons to move from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

The official said Egypt dismissed a request by the United States to stop the Iranian ship at the canal. “The Egyptian Navy refused a U.S. request to strike an Iranian ship loaded with weapons that was on its way to Syria through the Suez Canal,” Mohab Mamish, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said.

In an Aug. 26 interview with an Egyptian television station, Al Hayat, Mamish, replaced as Egyptian Navy commander earlier this month, did not say when the Iranian weapons ship traveled through the canal. Mamish, a former member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said he was authorized to make all decisions on the canal, a leading earner of revenue for Egypt. Read more >>