Pacific Fleet ships to visit Iranian, Syrian ports - source
VLADIVOSTOK. March 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Large amphibious ships of the Russian Pacific Fleet, which left Vladivostok on Tuesday to undertake combat tasks in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, will enter Iranian and Syrian ports, a source in the Pacific Fleet headquarters told Interfax-AVN.
"One of the combat service tasks of the Pacific Fleet ship unit, bearing in mind the unprecedented inclusion in it of three big amphibious ships, will be to deliver cargo to the Syrian port," the source said.
The ships may enter other ports in the region, including Iranian ports, the source said.
"By the way, Pacific Fleet ships already visited Iran in December," the source said.
Captain Roman Martov, an official spokesman for the Russian Pacific Fleet, earlier said the next unit of Pacific Fleet ships would leave Vladivostok for the Gulf of Aden n Tuesday. The unit is comprised of the big anti-ship vessel Admiral Panteleyev, which is has helicopter capabilities as well a naval infantry, three large amphibious ships, the Admiral Nevelsky, Peresvet, and Oslyabya, the ocean rescue vessel Fotiy Krylov, and the sea tanker Pechenga.
