"Russia's naval drills mean a warning to the Arab-West camp which interferes in Syria's internal affairs," Member of the parliament's Presiding Board Alireza Monadi Sefidan told the Persian website of ICANA affiliated to the Iranian parliament on Wednesday.
Noting that Russia has stood against the US expansionist policies in the Syrian crisis, he said Moscow has vetoed two UN Security Council resolutions against Syria so far and has stressed that talks between the Syrian government and the opposition forces are the only way to settle the crisis in the country.
"Russia's recent naval maneuvers are the country's greatest saber rattling in the region in recent years and conveys only one message in these conditions that is the US should understand that there is no place for the West in the region," Monadi Sefidan said.
Russia has launched its largest naval exercises in decades in the Mediterranean and Black Seas near the territorial waters of Syria amid the ongoing crisis in the Arab country.
The drills "are held in line with the Russian Armed Forces' 2013 combat training plan and focus on interoperability of task forces from several fleets while on a mission in a far-off maritime zone", said an official statement by Russia's Defense Ministry on Saturday.
The maneuvers will continue until January 29 and comprise more than 60 drills, including anti-submarine warfare missions, missile and artillery firing practices.
Russia's Black Sea, Northern and Baltic fleets, strategic bombers, tactical aircraft, air defense units, paratroopers and naval infantry will take part in the naval exercises.
The task forces have four large landing ships and a variety of auxiliary vessels in their composition which enable the Russian forces to carry out simulated beach landing and convoy escort missions.
Some of naval maneuvers are expected to be conducted in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean near the territorial waters of Syria where foreign-backed terrorists have stepped up their campaign against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia has criticized the Western countries' support for the terrorists in the Arab country.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
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A senior Iranian legislator underlined that the naval exercises in the Mediterranean and Black Seas near the territorial waters of Syria are a warning to the anti-Syrian camp.
News ID 184039
