New Delhi: Iranian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alireza Delkhosh confirmed Monday that the now-torpedoed IRIS Dena was waiting to enter Lankan waters for a visit based on the invitation of the Lankan Navy.
While the Ambassador came on record to claim that the it was the Sri Lankan Navy which had invited Iranian ships—IRIS Dena, IRIS Bushehr, and IRIS Lavan—to visit Colombo, sources in Colombo washed their hands off, claiming the invitation by the Commander at the Milan Exercise in India, was personal.
Sr Lankan newspaper Jaffna Monitor on 7 March reported that IRIS Dena, which was sunk by the US nuclear submarine on 4 March, was left stranded in the Indian Ocean after Sri Lanka reversed an invitation to dock on its port, leaving it vulnerable.
At a 23 March media briefing in Colombo, Delkhosh said the Sri Lankan Navy Commander invited the three Iranian ships for a courtesy port call at MILAN 2026, held on the sidelines of the 13th edition of India’s flagship international fleet review in Visakhapatnam.
“During the exercise in India, your navy commander invited—I repeat, invited—the Iranian Navy to send these vessels to Sri Lankan waters for friendly visits,” Delkhosh said, according to Jaffna Monitor.
The ambassador emphasised that IRIS Dena, after leaving Visakhapatnam, headed to Sri Lanka for a “peaceful exercise”—not a combat mission. “…in India, this vessel, along with two others, was invited by the Sri Lankan side to come here (Sri Lanka) and remain. They came in response to that invitation,” Delkhosh said.
The ship was sunk off the southern coast of Sri Lanka near Galle. It sank within minutes of the strike, leading to the death of more than 100 sailors.
Jaffna Monitor had then reported that the frigate was left waiting in open international waters for approximately 11 hours—a delay that analysts said exposed it to hostile action.
Delkhosh said the ship had not received any warning of the attack and that many of the slain sailors were not armed personnel but played instruments like saxophone and violin, as part of the naval music group.
Following Dena’s sinking, IRIS Bushehr received port access to Trincomalee, a coastal town in Northeast Sri Lanka.
On the invitation to the Iranian ships, a Sri Lankan navy source told Jaffna Monitor that it was informal and that the commander might have extended it without following up through any official written means.
Last week, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that Iran requested permission on 26 February to enter the Lankan port sometime between March 9 and 13 but the ship later sank near the island nation’s coast, outside Sri Lanka’s maritime zone.
When asked about the urgent distress call by IRIS Dena following the torpedoing, Delkhosh said he did not have confirmed information but stated that it is the humanitarian obligation of any state to respond to a distressed vessel.
“If so, absolutely any country—there is no difference between neutral or not—all countries have responsibilities, even from a humanitarian point of view, to give help,” he said.