India has offered safe harbor to an Iranian naval vessel amid rising tensions following a deadly incident in the Indian Ocean. The warship, IRIS Lavan, is currently docked at the port of Kochi after a sister ship from the same fleet was reportedly sunk by an American submarine.
According to government sources who spoke to WION, Iran reached out to New Delhi days before the incident, requesting permission for IRIS Lavan to dock at an Indian port. The ship had developed technical difficulties while operating in Indian waters for the International Fleet Review (IFR-2026). The formal request was submitted on February 28, approval came through on March 1, and the vessel arrived at Kochi on March 4. All 183 crew members are currently being housed at Indian naval facilities in the city.
IRIS Lavan is a Hengam-class landing ship, commissioned in January 1985, and is primarily deployed for amphibious and logistics operations in the Persian Gulf region.
The vessel was one of three Iranian warships that sailed to India in mid-February to participate in IFR-2026, the international naval exercise held off Visakhapatnam. The Iranian contingent also included the fleet support ship IRIS Bushehr and the frigate IRIS Dena. The event, which was reviewed by President Droupadi Murmu on February 18, drew naval vessels from dozens of nations — among them the United States, Russia and Iran — in a show of multilateral maritime cooperation.
The return journey, however, ended in tragedy. On March 4 — the very day IRIS Lavan docked in Kochi — IRIS Dena was reportedly torpedoed by a US submarine in the Indian Ocean, south of Sri Lanka. The frigate, commissioned in June 2021 and named after Iran’s Mount Dena, was lost with an estimated 100 sailors killed. Sri Lankan forces recovered bodies from the scene. Iran’s government condemned the attack in the strongest terms, calling it an “atrocity” and raising alarm about the safety of naval vessels operating in international waters.
The third ship in the Iranian group, IRIS Bushehr, separately sought refuge at Trincomalee port in Sri Lanka.
The episode marks a dramatic and deadly postscript to what had been a routine display of international naval goodwill, and is likely to fuel diplomatic tensions between Tehran and Washington in the weeks ahead.
