.
Fox News Wendell Goler on the escalating tensions
the video aboveis from FOX and this is from CNN
CNN) — The U.S. Navy said Iran’s threat to block the strategically and economically important Strait of Hormuz is unacceptable.
“The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity,” Navy 5th Fleet in Bahrain spokeswoman Cmdr. Amy Derrick Frost told reporters on Wednesday.
“Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated.”
The 34-mile-wide shipping channel leads in and out of the Persian Gulf between Iran and Oman. It is strategically important because tankers carrying oil travel through it.
.
Krauthammer: “Iran could be making a huge mistake here…If the bluff is called…The United States Navy will reopen the Straits and it could destroy the Iranian Navy”
.
Iran Rejects U.S. Warning on Strait of Hormuz
CBS News
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran continued to suggest it may block the Strait of Hormuz in response to greater international pressure over its nuclear program, rejecting a U.S. warning that any attempt to choke off the key oil supply route would not be tolerated.
“The U.S. is not in a position” to affect Iran’s decisions, Gen. Hossein Salami, the acting commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard told the semi-official Fars news agency Thursday. “Iran does not ask permission to implement its own defensive strategies.”
Iran had previously threatened the close the strait if Washington imposes sanctions targeting Iran’s crude exports. On Wednesday, Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet, said the Navy was “always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation.”
Meanwhile, official IRNA news agency reported an Iranian surveillance plane has recorded video and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier during Iran’s ongoing navy drill near a strategic waterway in the Persian Gulf.
The report did not provide details and it was unclear what information the Iranian military could gleam from such footage. But the announcement is an indication Iran is seeking to cast its navy as having a powerful role in the region’s waters.
IRNA quoted Iran’s navy chief, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, as saying the action shows that Iran has “control over the moves by foreign forces” in the area where Tehran is holding a 10-day military exercise.
“An Iranian vessel and surveillance plane have tracked, filmed and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier as it was entering the Gulf of Oman from the Persian Gulf,” Sayyari said.
He added that the “foreign fleet will be warned by Iranian forces if it enters the area of the drill.”
.
Wild Thing’s comment……
I have no doubts that the U.S. Navy could handle the situation and wipe out the the Iranian navy in days, if not hours.
But if the Iranians sink just a couple of tankers in the region, the shock-waves will be felt worldwide anyway.
But my biggest doubt is that 0bama would permit the Navy to act decisively, rapidly..
They took a picture of an aircraft carrier and that means they have control over the area? They’ve got to be joking, right? Shoot, there’s pictures of aircraft carriers all over the internet taken from aircraft. Do that mean whoever took the picture has control over the area?
If we have to kick Iran’s butt will the Arab states and other nations join us or will we have to go it mostly alone? Most of the world depends on that MidEast oil. The Arab states’ economies run on the sale of that oil. Any disruption and the already weak world economy will become many times worse. It seems that nations around the world should join in and help keep those straits open. In reality, it would be the US alone maybe with a very token gesture from a few allies that would shoulder the military and financial burdens of keeping the world’s oil supply flowing. So much for the United Nations.
Most of this would be moot if we had opened up our own vast energy reserves for development right after 9-11.
If there were ever a time for the Politicians in this Country, starting with the President, to open the mining of the know oil reserves withing our own Country, this is it.
They will not of course because, all of the “tree huggers”, could really give a hoot about this confrontation.
Iran is doing this because they know that we have an Administration who will either ignore all of this or if it becomes necessary, either negotiate or turn the matter over to the U.N.
Meanwhile Barry Soetero, will play another round of Golf, before attending another fund raiser at the home of one of the “1%’s
If we have to take action against Iran, we need to do it from the air and sea. No need for one American to set foot on Iranian soil. We’ve got the most powerful Air Force and Navy in the world so there’s no need to use ground forces. Shoot, in Desert Storm we didn’t need to send in ground forces but the Army had to for appropriations reason.
Thank you so much all of you.