Brazil ignores US appeal and authorizes the anchoring of Iranian warships in Rio de Janeiro

The Brazilian Navy authorized the anchoring of two Iranian warships in the port of Rio de Janeiro between this Sunday (Feb. 26) and March 4.

According to the publication, the ships Iris Makran and Iris Dena have permission to dock, and the crews of the two vessels are allowed to “disembark and socialize” as long as they meet local health standards.

This is the second request submitted by the government of Iran. The visit was scheduled for the end of January.

Still, the Brazilian government postponed the docking permission days before the meeting between presidents Joe Biden and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Washington on the 10th.

The idea was to prevent the authorization from sounding like a provocation to the US government.

“The process of granting authorization for foreign state vessels to transit Brazilian Jurisdictional Waters (AJB) and visit national ports begins with a request from the foreign embassy of the country to which the ship belongs, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), which includes some operational data and the desired period in port,” said the Navy in a statement.

Before the authorization, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Bagley, even appealed for no authorization for anchoring ships from Iran.

“These ships, in the past, have facilitated illicit trade and terrorist activities and had sanctions from the UN [United Nations]. Brazil is a sovereign country, but we strongly believe that these ships should not dock anywhere,” he said.

The Iris Makran is a 228-meter-long and 42-meter-wide helicopter carrier.

It is Iran’s largest military vessel, converted from an oil tanker. The Iris Dena is a frigate 95 meters long and 11.1 meters wide.

Both set sail from the Islamic Republic of Iran in September 2022.