Posted on 01/06/2012 8:38:55 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
(Reuters) - Iran announced plans on Friday for new military exercises in the world's most important oil shipping lane, the latest in weeks of bellicose gestures towards the West as new sanctions threaten Tehran's oil exports.
Real Admiral Ali Fadavi, naval commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, said exercises next month would focus directly on the Strait of Hormuz, which leads out of the Gulf and provides the outlet for most Mid-East oil.
Iran held a 10-day drill which ended on Monday in neighboring seas.
"Today the Islamic Republic of Iran has full domination over the region and controls all movements within it," Fadavi said in remarks reported by the Fars news agency.
Iranian officials have threatened in recent weeks to block the strait if new sanctions harm Tehran's oil exports, and this week said they would take action if the United States sails an aircraft carrier through it.
The United States, which has a massive naval fleet in the area that is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's sea forces, says it will ensure the international waters of the strait stay open. Britain said on Thursday that any attempt to close it would be illegal and unsuccessful.
New financial sanctions signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve are aimed at making it difficult for most countries to buy Iranian oil. The European Union is expected to announce tough measures of its own at the end of the month.
Most traders believe Iran will still be able to find buyers, at least in the short term, for its exports of 2.6 million barrels of oil per day (bpd). But it may have to offer steep discounts that reduce the hard currency revenue it needs to feed its 74 million people.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The US fleet needs to conduct some exercises too.
oooooooooooooooh scawy
They’ll just photo-shop some more missle launches.
Has Baghdad bob resurfaced?
Every regime needs one...
They actually believe it in that part of the world. A lie repeated enough becomes the truth - J. Goebbels.
The pattern was the same with Saddam Hussein and Hitler. The more we backed down, the more bellicose they got. Saddam Hussein tried to set himself up as the great middle east uniter by making outrageous claims that weren't true. The more he didn't get a response in kind, the more emboldened he was.
Now Iran is trying to fill the void with their propaganda.
All Congress has to do is pass tax incentives for individuals to either buy or convert their current vehicle to multifuel capability meaning the ability to run on either natural gas or gasoline and provide incentives for business to add a natural gas compressor to their current location.
We have so much natural gas right now and with the gargantuan quantities coming on stream that the market would do the rest. US demand for gasoline would continue to drop for many years. Eventually our need for imported oil would drop enough to depress the world price of oil to the point countries like Iran would be out begging with their tin cups.
The solution is as simple as that. In one stroke, the Mideast and it’s oil would be headed down the road to irrelevancy.
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