We sent a message to Americans that we are able to reach the closest point to you, says a commander of the fifth Martyr Lieutenant General Haj Qassem Soleimani fleet of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy of Iran, reports Mehr.

“After the United States imposed sanctions on the IRGC Navy, we had to show that the IRGC Navy is not just a coastal force and is capable of supplying various types of heavy vessels, enabling it to have a presence in international waters,” Colonel Soleimani said on Monday.

He added that the naval fleet, with a domestically-developed Shahid Mahdavi oceangoing warship acting as the flagship, began its mission from Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf where the US killed an IRGC commander.

“This conveyed important messages to the US,” he emphasized, according to PressTV. During its mission, the Shahid Mahdavi warship passed through important and strategic straits of the world, including the Strait of Malaga, he added. The IRGC commander said the Iranian flotilla crossed the Equator and entered the zone of the US Navy’s 7th fleet.

For the first time, it approached Diego Garcia Island and one of the most important US bases in the Indian Ocean, and returned home after 39 days of successful voyage, he added.

“We sent a message to Americans that we are able to reach the closest point to you,” Soleimani said. The Iranian commander reiterated the “totally professional” nature of the mission, saying, “We did not seek to stoke any tension.”