Iranian official: UN sanctions may lead us to seal off Persian Gulf

[sasha031]

A senior Iranian official threatened that Tehran may forcibly prevent oil export via the Straits of Hormuz if the UN imposed economic sanctions due to Iran's nuclear program, an Iranian news Web site said on Monday.

This is the first time an Iranian official makes military threats in a public statement on Tehran's recent disagreements with the West.

The news site, affiliated with the radical student movement in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was once a member, quoted Mohammed-Nabi Rudaki, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
According to the report, Rudaki said that "if Europe does not act wisely with the Iranian nuclear portfolio and it is referred to the UN Security Council and economic or air travel restrictions are imposed unjustly, we have the power to halt oil supply to the last drop from the shores of the Persian Gulf via the Straits of Hormuz."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/674159.html

[madeline_con]

1. Am I understanding this correctly?

The Iranian Navy is going to try the U.S of A?

First, :rofl:

Second, are they out of their minds?

[tatertop]

2. Why couldn't they sink their own ships in that lane

And mine the hell out of it.
I think they are ready for us.

[madeline_con]

3. They could, I suppose.

Except for the U.S. Navy ships already patroling the area.

Have you considered this is another instance of chest-beating to inflame the masses? Drum up more biz for the "evildoers" so to speak.

[tatertop]

5. Possibly. Seems to me Iran must have detailed battle plans by now

I don't want to find out what those are.

[Mika]

7. Iran has Russian Sunburn missiles.

I seem to remember reading that here on DU. There is no defense against Sunburns.


On edit:

Uh oh, seems that they do link

:scared:

:nuke:

[tatertop]

8. So goes the scuttlebutt

I fear we are going to find that out pretty soon.

[Ouabache]

4. yep, and then fire shore to surface missles at any attempt to clear it

Of course blivet* will use it as an excuse to nuke them.

[Spoon]

6. Jsut last night I was thinking about various ways the Iran conflict could

go hot, and f'n with ships in the Gulf was at the top of the list. Operation Praying Mantis (Gulf, 1988) comes to mind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis

[madeline_con]

9. They'd be destroyed...

This is not an endorsement of any crazy warmongering. It's just that we have the best military in the world, and the Chimp in Charge has no qualms about using them. Unless of course, they actually have nuclear capabilities, in which case, he'll be a blowhard about it like he is with N. Korea.


Wikipedia says, "The attack by the U.S. may have helped pressure Iran to agree to a ceasefire..."

Probably.

[Spoon]

10. My thoughts are that an excuse would be needed to justify an

escalation, and what more predictable reason could there be but the "sanctions, response, response" angle that has started so many other wars...