Iran's Navy commander Habibollah Sayyari points while standing on a naval ship during Velayat-90 war game on Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz on January 1.
Iran says they are in complete control of the Strait of Hormuz, pathway for one-sixth of the world’s oil supply. They test-fired surface-to-surface cruise missiles on Monday designed to evade radars and successfully hit their intended targets during war game exercises.
Presumably, it was to show the West that they are serious about closing the Strait of Hormuz. France is not impressed and says the Strait must remain open at all costs, the US has its Fifth Fleet based in the Gulf and has warned it will not tolerate a closure and Iran says they will close it if more sanctions are put in place.
So we’ve got a stand-off. And all it would take to resolve it, is for Iran to allow inspectors to come in and see just what they are doing with their nuclear program. They insist it is only for peaceful purposes only - well show us then. I just hope they’ve got it right this time, the US insisted that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, we don’t need any more bad intelligence.
If the European Union puts an embargo on Iranian oil imports, it will be the death knell for Iran. Their economy is really struggling from other economic sanctions already in place and it’s hard to understand why a regime would deliberately bring about such hardships to their own people. Their powerful friends, Russia and China would surely think again about continuing their support, rather than risk open warfare with the US.
Dangerous events so early in the new year.
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