Egypt allows Iranian warships through Suez Canal

CAIRO/JERUSALEM - Authorities in Egypt Tuesday allowed two Iranian warships to pass through the Suez Canal in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, security sources in Cairo said.

The Iranian naval vessels, the first to enter the canal in some three decades, were reportedly bound for Syria.

Egypt granted permission days earlier for the transit of the warships, but stormy weather off the coast of Syria delayed their passage, according to a Lebanese security official.

“I think that today, we can see what an unstable region we live in, a region in which Iran tries to exploit the situation that has been created in order to expand its influence by passing warships through the Suez Canal,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.