TEHRAN (Reuters) - Two Iranian navy vessels have passed through the Suez Canal, Iran's Arabic language state television channel reported on Sunday, the first time the Islamic Republic has sent warships through the waterway.
"Two Iranian warships have passed through the canal and are heading towards a Syrian port," Al Alam TV reported.
The military, which has been running Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled on February 11, approved Iran's request to send the ships through the canal, an Egyptian army source said on Friday.
The request was a difficult one for Egypt's interim government. Cairo is an ally of the United States and has a peace treaty with Israel, and its relations with Iran have been strained since Iran's 1979 revolution.
The prospect of Iranian warships sailing through the canal into the Mediterranean for the first time since 1979 alarmed Israel whose foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, described it as a provocation.
SUEZ (SZEB.BR)(SZE.PA)Canal officials who had said late on Saturday that the Iranian ships would sail through the canal on Monday could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
