JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli military official said Tuesday that two additional warships had been stationed in the Red Sea but added that this was no more than routine.
He played down reports that they were connected to an Egyptian sweep of the Sinai peninsula for militants that has been carried in the Israeli media, although he declined to say what, if any, operational duties the ships were performing.
"I can confirm that there are two naval craft in the Red Sea. This is not unusual," the official told Reuters.
Brent crude prices extended gains after the reports came out, adding around $1 to trade up $2.09 at $114.00 by 1600 GMT (5 p.m. British time).
Separately, Iranian media reported earlier in the day that Iran was sending a submarine and a warship to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, areas where it often has a presence, it says, to ward off piracy by armed Somali gangs.
In February, after the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, two Iranian warships passed through the Suez canal for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution en route to Syria, a manoeuvre Israel described as "provocative."
REGULARLY STATIONED
Israeli warships are regularly stationed at a naval port in the resort city of Eilat at the northern tip of the Red Sea and patrol the area to the south as part of routine procedure to secure the Jewish state's borders.
The two ships were thought to have passed through the Suez Canal on their way to the Red Sea, although the Israeli military declined to confirm this. The only other way to get to the Red Sea would have been around Africa, a weeks-long voyage.
In June 2009 an Israeli Dolphin class diesel-powered submarine sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea as part of a naval drill, defence sources said, describing the unusual manoeuvre as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.
(Reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Simon Falush in London and Robin Pomery in Tehran, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by David Stamp)
