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Page added on March 18, 2012
Iran threatens Hormuz and world oil supply after trade links cutoff
Intelligence Minister Ali Falahian, Iran’s senior spokesman on sanctions, said Sunday, March 18, that if the US and Europe think they can ignore international law to promote their interests, they should know that Iran will respond in kind everywhere it can. “I suggest that the West take seriously our threat to close the Strait of Hormuz,” he said in Tehran’s first response to the SWIFT decision to sever ties with Iranian banks to enforce European sanctions on its nuclear program.
A large fleet of 4 US and French nuclear aircraft carriers and a dozen or more minesweepers and mine-hunting helicopters have piled up on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 17 percent of the world’s daily oil supply passes, and Israeli naval vessels have deployed in the Red Sea.
debkafile’s military and intelligence sources estimate Tehran may make good on its threats by trying to drop sea mines in the strategic strait and/or the approaches to the huge Saudi Ras Tanura oil export terminal. A small explosion by an unknown hand hit a major Saudi pipeline between Awamiya and Safwa on March 1. The damage was not great because the saboteurs used a small quantity of explosive but it appeared to be the work of professionals.
While Saudi officials denied the incident, photos of a large fire appeared on the Internet. Gulf oil sources suspect that it was a warning from Tehran of the hazards facing the world’s largest oil exporter.
The SWIFT cutoff of ties with Iranian banks has gone a long way toward isolating Iran from global commerce. It will affect Iranian oil sales to its biggest customers in the Far East, China and Japan, as well as India. The economic noose tightening around its neck is bound to produce a response from Iran, it is estimated in Washington and European capitals. The US-led European sanctions on Iranian oil world trade were boosted in recent weeks by the United Arab Emirates which stopped handling Iranian rials, further reducing its ability to trade and obtain hard currency.
After its foremost ally, Bashar Assad, proved his ability to survive – largely with abundant Iranian help – Tehran is unlikely to let this achievement be marred by a US and European economic stranglehold. The ordinary Iranian may care about his government’s international standing but he cares a lot more about the fast depreciating value of the money in his pocket and his financial assets.
Anticipating that Iran may kick back hard against the tough penalties building up against its nuclear program, three US aircraft carriers are standing by in the Persian Gulf – The USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Enterprise together with the French Charles de Gaulle and their strike groups.
Thursday, US Navy Chief Adm. Jonathan Greenert said he was doubling the American minesweeping fleet in the Persian Gulf by adding another four vessels as well as mine-hunting helicopters to bolster Persian Gulf security and keep the Strait of Hormuz open to international traffic.
France, Britain, Holland and Germany have also deployed minesweepers in these strategic Gulf waters.
Tuesday, March 13, two Israeli missile corvettes, the INS Lahav and INS Yafo, crossed the Suez Canal on their way to the Red Sea accompanied by the French Imidisi supply ship.
The vast naval buildup of powerful warships confirms that the United States, Europe and Israel are braced for harsh Iranian retaliation across more than one part of the Middle East for the crippling sanctions now taking hold.
19 Comments on "Iran threatens Hormuz and world oil supply after trade links cutoff"
rob on Sun, 18th Mar 2012 10:53 pm
Ali Falahian is NOT Intelligence Minister. This comment also made more than a month ago – Stop recycling news and propaganda.
pete on Sun, 18th Mar 2012 11:50 pm
rob you should check your info before speaking.Virtual Jerusalem.com has the same story march 18.
next, when the shooting starts the leaders of Iran know that it wont stop until there is regime change. that is why I have said before that if an assassin is pointing a shotgun at you and you have a knife, go for the juggler. Irans leaders are dead anyway so die with the satisfaction of knowing that you killed your assassin, and they will never kill again. destroy all oil fields and infrastructure in the Red sea, gulf and Caspian sea. belonging or going to the west. Dont touch China or Russian stuff. Odd for a white about eighth generation Canadian to say, eh.
MrEnergyCzar on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 12:13 am
We’ll see what happens after July when some of more of their oil gets embargoed..
MrEnergyCzar
jaime on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 12:52 am
Mr, you’re comment is stupid and out of place.
DC on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 1:00 am
Four aircraft carriers, all to stop steal Irans oil and give it to amerikan and select EU FF energy companies. I know how it feels. My country doesnt control its own energy. All owned lock stock and barrel by amerikans. Good thing were not all brown or yellow people, or it would have been stolen at gun-point, instead of nice and legally by nicely dressed terrorists in 3 piece suits.
BillT on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 1:27 am
If Iran has a few of China’s new carrier killer missile, wouldn’t it be a shock to the empire to lose a few in the Gulf? How about sinking one in the Straight channel? Let’s see the Empire clear that while under fire from missile bases well inside Iran.
I think Obama knows that this will be the “big one” that takes down the world economy and his reelection with it. You can put our whole navy in the bathtub called the Persian Gulf but that does not make winning a sure thing. Only make more targets of opportunity in a confined space. It’s going to be a long, hot summer, I think.
Ken Nohe on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 1:52 am
A war with Iran would take out 3M barrels of oil out of the market + at least 1 or 2M barrels in neighboring countries due to sabotage and other war disruptions. The calculation must be that we can live with 10% less oil for a few months.That may be true but by then any disruption anywhere else in the world will have major consequences. If the price of oil goes up another 30 or 50%, the incentive for Venezuela or Russia to reduce supply even marginally for maximum political and economic leverage will be high.
alokin on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 2:19 am
The war itself would use up a lot of oil, I don’t know how much though.
rangerone314 on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 2:56 am
What would the US & France do if the Iranians launched a hundred or two anti-ship missiles at the 4 carriers and sank them, and a few oil tankers with them?
Good luck taking out ALL the mobile launchers.
With the advanced state of Russian anti-ship missiles, Iran really could be the US’s “Syracuse”.
JohnRM on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 9:22 am
Iran has some nice weapons, indeed. What they lack is an sophistocated integrated air defense and command and control. From what I’ve heard, they’re much worse off than Iraq was in ’91. If we were to hit a few targets, they’d essentially be blind. I don’t believe that Iran is a threat unless it strikes first, and even then, the threat is limited.
Arthur on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 10:49 am
I read somewhere that the carrier the Enterprise is going to be decommisioned next year anyway. What a nice casus belli it would be to see the images of a sinking carrier in the Gulf. Pictures of 911 quality. All American citizens will be screaming for revenge. And the world will never know if it had been an Iranian or Israeli torpedo that did the job. From experience (Pearl Harbor as well as 911) we know that 2600 Americans killed is enough to initiate a major war.
Arthur on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 11:13 am
Iran has no chance and no options but take the beatings from the air, just like the good citizens of Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, etc., etc. They have to wait until the first American soldier sets foot on the ground, so they can give them the IED treatment. They will not engage in direct combat but use social media to show the devastation caused by the Americans. Iran will destroy as much oil infrastructure as possible and thus force Europe into the arms of Russia for fuel deliveries and isolate the US, UK and Israel against the rest of the world. Expect China to invade into Taiwan and later possibly Australia.
george on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 1:03 pm
LBJ is smiling from his grave
BillT on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 1:44 pm
JohnRM, would YOU be willing to put YOUR life on that guess? I wouldn’t.
Arthur, I think you are correct on all fronts. And the sheeple will swallow it totally like they did 9/11. Then we are in WW3.
Arthur on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 1:52 pm
Keep in mind that the source of the article is DEBKAfile, a zionist publication (see Wikipedia) and part of the warmongering system. War is a means of changing the status quo:
– WW1 resulted in the Balfour Declaration and the origins of the state of Israel as the seat of the future world government and the selection of Anglosphere, rather than Germany, as the projected vehicle to attain world power.
– WW2 was the opportunity for the Roosevelt government to destroy Europe, together with the Soviets and the Churchill war party in Britain and catapulted the US into #1 position of the global pecking order, all by design as early as 1933.
– WW3 is sought after by the ruling elites of Anglosphere and AIPAC-Washington in order to get the entire world under control, according to millenia old Talmudic dreams of world power. Think of a USSR on a global scale.
FarQ3 on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 4:47 pm
With that much hardware concentrated in the Persian Gulf the Iranians may undertake to conduct thier first nuclear test. BOOM!
BillT on Tue, 20th Mar 2012 1:41 am
FarQ3, if they had one, that would be the time and place to bring the world to it’s knees, but…they do not……yet. However, if they do have those carrier killers, they will use them, I think.
Arthur on Tue, 20th Mar 2012 11:34 am
Here some more disaster porn:
http://www.darkmoon.me/2012/the-lake-of-fire-by-mark-gaffney/
Gaffney confirms that in 2012 ships/fleets are utterly useless and that the outcome of the coming conflict will depend on the question whether Russia and/or China will deliver supersonic missiles to Iran or not. Russia will be much more tempted than China to do that since Russia has oil and gas, where China has not. Putting the Gulf (temporarily) out of business means astronomic prices for fossil fuel from Russia and will give Moscow an enormous power leverage over Europe (only Holland is self-sufficient with natural gas for two more decades).
Gaffney claims: “Try and imagine it if you can: barrage after barrage of Exocet-class missiles, which the Iranians are known to possess in the hundreds, as well as the unstoppable Sunburn and Yakhont missiles.”
Not sure if he means that Iran does indeed possess supersonic Sunburn or Yakhont. But hundreds of Exocets are more than enough to halt oilshipping in the Gulf without the necessity of mining the Straight of Hormuz. These Exocets can be fired from within Iran. You really need to occupy entire Iran (66 million people prepared to commit suicide, good-luck America) to prevent that. You can rest assured that the Iranians studied carefully that what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and learned from it. Iran plays from a position of strength where the West is bluffing.
Arthur on Wed, 21st Mar 2012 12:50 pm
Here video of Mark Gaffney supporting a new energy base and local American production:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6cujkC5yLs