The presence of Iranian ships in Brazil worries the US and Israel 

This week, the Brazilian government’s authorization for two Iranian ships to dock in Rio de Janeiro has drawn criticism from Israel and the United States.

“Israel perceives the docking a few days ago of Iranian warships in Brazil as a dangerous and regrettable event,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said on his Twitter account.

“Brazil should not give any award to an evil state.”

Haiat’s comments came a day after statements by US State Department spokesman Ned Price.

In response to a reporter’s question about the arrival of the ships in Brazil, Price said Washington is discussing the issue with its Brazilian partners and wants to be sure that Iran “is not able to take a position of support, is not able to take advantage of others in our hemisphere.”

“It is certainly not the case that the government of Brazil, the Brazilian people, would want to do anything to help a government, a regime that is responsible for a brutal and violent repression of its people,” he added.

On Thursday, one of the ships could be seen in front of the renowned beach area in southern Rio, while the other remained docked. The ships IRIS Makran and IRIS Dena have permission to remain in Rio until March 4.

Last month, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on both vessels.

The Iranian navy’s trip comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the West over the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

At a time when the Islamic republic is closer than ever to enriching uranium to weapons grade.

Iranian officials have described the trip as a challenge to US influence in its backyard, a long-standing sticking point as Tehran continually criticizes the presence of the US Navy’s flotilla in the region, which patrols the Persian Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

In statements to the state news agency IRNA, the commander of the Iranian navy, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, said last January that “the Islamic Republic is not present in two strategic straits of the planet, but this year, the Iranians plan to have a presence in one of them, the Panama Canal”.

The state press has described the trip as a challenge to the “hegemony” of the United States.

In a statement issued Tuesday, US Senator Ted Cruz noted that the United States had already imposed sanctions on the two Iranian ships and that the port of Rio de Janeiro and any Brazilian service providers are now at risk of being penalized.

“The federal government is obligated to impose relevant sanctions, reevaluate Brazil’s cooperation with US counterterrorism efforts, and take another look at whether Brazil maintains effective counterterrorism measures at its ports,” Cruz wrote.

With information from La Tercera

More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.