The Iranian navy is not nuclear and thus needs fuel resupply in order to operate far from home for extended periods. This would be either expensive or impossible, depending on their logistical infrastructure.
Also, they've got ships with high seas interdiction capabilities, destroyers and such, but nothing that can project power onto land beyond perhaps a cruise missile (and an aged one, if any). Certainly no aircraft carriers, so all they can do is steam around and circle jerk. I suppose they could try to interefere with commercial traffic, but this would be inadvisable, to say the least.
It's an idiotic statement, Ahmadinejad is just trying to make himself look strong to his electorate. It isn't a serious military development by any stretch.
Frankly, if this actually occurred (unlikely) and I was an Iranian on one of those ships, I'd be scared shitless. They'd be *naked* out there, exposed to half a dozen means of annihilation, and at the beck and call of a madman who doesn't particularly value their lives. Honestly, if the ships WERE ordered here, I don't think that mass defection would be all that unlikely.
