TEHRAN/DUBAI — The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it would not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the world’s most important oil route.
“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 Bahrain-based fleet said in an e-mail.
Iran, at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear program, said on Tuesday it would stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if sanctions were imposed on its crude exports.
“Closing the Strait of Hormuz for Iran’s armed forces is really easy … or as Iranians say, it will be easier than drinking a glass of water,” Iran’s navy chief Habibollah Sayyari told Iran’s English-language Press TV on Wednesday.
“But right now, we don’t need to shut it …,” said Sayyari, who is leading 10 days of exercises in the Strait.
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Afternoon Updates:
Iran is pounding the drum trying to scare everyone to death. Frankly, I would give them about 24 hours before their roof begins to fall in if they are stupid enough to try this stunt. Surely, the “mad mullahs” must have been watching what happened to Saddam. More to the point, how fast it happened. I’m thinking about the time that allied forces actually began and then ceased full combat operations because Saddam’s “invincible army” was totally destroyed. I am not including (as in the following Wikepedia entry) the utter stupidity that followed which has lasted many years.
Weeks.
In no way should a smart country be threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz as if it were already fact. But then again Iranian “thugs” aren’t that smart (neither was Saddam). And if they try they will wear it — all of it. I hope they make the mistake of trying because that will end the problem of Iran. Something that should have happened a decade ago.
And as a final point. When Iran’s military is totally decimated the west should leave with a warning: “Don’t try this stupidity again or we’ll be back.”
“Have a nice day.”
Obam would never do that. He has no idea what to do now, how would suddenly grow some to want has to be done. He is so lost in the mantra of the left he cannot find the middle.