TEHRAN (FNA)- Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari underlined that protecting Iran's interests in the high seas is the most significant achievement of his forces.

"The most important achievement of the Navy is establishment of security at sea borders, security of the country's interests in the sea and the country's interests in the high seas," Sayyari told reporters in the Southern port city of Bushehr on Wednesday.

He underlined that if Iran fails to provide security for its cargo ships in international waters, specially the Gulf of Aden, its economy will be endangered.

His remarks came a few days after the Iranian Navy's 35th flotilla of warships left Bandar Abbas port, in Southern Hormozgan province, for the Gulf of Aden to protect the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against pirates.

The Iranian Navy's 34th flotilla of warships left the same port for the Gulf of Aden in early April to fulfill the same mission, and returned home last week.

The Navy's 34th fleet, comprising Alborz destroyer and Bushehr helicopter-carrier warship, was conducting anti-piracy patrols in the high seas and Gulf of Aden.

The mission of the 34th fleet lasted about three months in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.

The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.

By Fars News Agency