Iran Gives Full Powers To Revolutionary Guards In Persian Gulf
Its coming…..
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran announced Tuesday that it has put the elite Revolutionary Guards in charge of defending the country’s territorial Persian Gulf waters in what appeared to be a hardening of its stance in the vital oil route.
U.S. commanders in the Gulf have in the past said they find Guards ships more confrontational than the regular Iranian navy, which until the new order was responsible for Iranian defenses in the Gulf.
Iran has warned repeatedly that it will close the narrow Hormuz Strait at the mouth of the Gulf if the United States or Israel attacks it amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear program. Around 40% of the world’s oil passes through Hormuz. Last winter, Iranian and U.S. ships patrolling the Gulf had a series of small confrontations in Hormuz that the Americans blamed on provocations by Guards ships.
Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the top military adviser of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced the change on the state news agency IRNA. He said “responsibility to defend the Persian Gulf” has been delegated to the Guards’ navy, while the regular navy would operate in the Oman Sea, outside the Gulf and in the landlocked Caspian Sea.
Safavi, who was the head of the Guards until earlier this year, added a warning that all vessels in the Gulf are within the range of Iranian missiles.
Also from the J Post
Iran announced Tuesday that it has put the elite Revolutionary Guards in charge of defending the country’s territorial Persian Gulf waters in what appeared to be a hardening of its stance in the vital oil route.
US commanders in the Gulf have in the past said they find Guards ships more confrontational than the regular Iranian navy, which until the new order was responsible for Iranian defenses in the Gulf.
Iran has warned repeatedly that it will close the narrow Hormuz Strait at the mouth of the Gulf if the United States or Israel attacks it amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear program. Around 40 percent of the world’s oil passes through Hormuz. Last winter, Iranian and US ships patrolling the Gulf had a series of small confrontations in Hormuz that the Americans blamed on provocations by Guards ships.
Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the top military adviser of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced the change on the state news agency IRNA. He said “responsibility to defend the Persian Gulf” has been delegated to the Guards’ navy, while the regular navy would operate in the Oman Sea, outside the Gulf and in the landlocked Caspian Sea.
Safavi, who was the head of the Guards until earlier this year, added a warning that all vessels in the Gulf are within the range of Iranian missiles.
“The Guards’ missiles are able to cover the whole width of the Persian Gulf. No warship can pass through the waterway without being in our range,” he said. “Our armed forces, possessed with defensive weapons including missiles, air, sea and torpedoes, are able to control the strait of Hormuz.”
A spokesman for the US Navy in Bahrain said the Iranian announcement will not significantly affect the 5th Fleet’s patrols of the Persian Gulf, including the strategic waterway. Navy Lt. Nathan Christensen said their task is to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to ensure “free flow of trade and commerce in and out of the region.”
“We are not interested in a confrontation in the Gulf,” said Christensen, speaking from the 5th Fleet’s Mideast headquarters in Bahrain’s capital, Manama. He added that the Navy expects “responsible and professional maritime behavior” of all vessels in the Gulf, including those of the Iranian Guards.
The US Navy normally keeps some three dozen warships and auxiliary vessels in the area. It currently has one aircraft carrier operating in the Gulf.
Safavi, the Guards former chief, also repeated warnings that Iran would retaliate against U.S. bases in the Gulf if Israel launches a strike against Iran.
“The Zionist regime doesn’t have the necessary political, economic and social capabilities to start a big war,” he said. If Israel attacks, US forces in the region “will be put in serious danger. Definitely, the Americans don’t want to get involved in a fourth front after conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Georgia.”
Israel, which is believed to possess a nuclear arsenal, has warned it would attack Iran to prevent the Persian state from acquiring nuclear weapons. The US says it seeking a diplomatic solution, but has not ruled out military action. Iran denies it intends to develop nuclear weapons.
The Guards corps, which has land, navy and air components, is considered better equipped than the normal military and more ideologically fervent, tasked with protecting Iran’s Islamic government, dominated by hard-line clerics.
The Guards’ vessels stepped up patrols in Hormuz last year during a period when the US had increased its naval strength in the Gulf, making a show of strength over Iran’s defiance of UN resolutions on its nuclear program. The Guards say their navy vessels ask ships to identify themselves before entering the Gulf.
Despite last year’s frictions, US Navy and Iranian officials say their vessels are in frequent radio contact to avoid incidents in the waters of the narrow, heavily trafficked Gulf.
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What is that picture supposed to be? Iranian Vice?
September 16th, 2008 at 5:17 am
CBL, good targets when you wear red.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:22 amTime for the delivery by Cruise Missle to beautiful downtown Tehran, on their National Nitwit Day, a canister of “Gotcha” cards.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:34 amSo if Miss Budweiser was there would they wrap her up in a burka???
September 16th, 2008 at 5:46 amSomewhere down the road when this escalates into a full conflict, all the candy-ass leftists will say that we started the conflict and that Iran did nothing to instigate it. They will have forgotten this day when Iran issued a veiled threat to the rest of the world to stay out of the Strait of Hormuz.
My nephew’s history teacher compared Obama to Kennedy. I thought it was funny to compare the soon to be taxing president to the last democratic president to pass a tax cut.
Another jackass.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:01 amfirst, F*ck you iran.
“The Zionist regime doesn’t have the necessary political,
economic and social capabilities to start a big war,”
A big war? Yea we can bring it bitch, but I would prefer to just nuke and firebomb them off the planet.
F*ck a big war with boots on the ground, I give a shit about the lives of their citizens, about collateral damage, We just need to glass that country and surround it.
Anything that is remotely involved in war making or government control needs to be vaporized
I give a shit less about the price of gas compared to allowing these monsters to rise to a regional or global power.
To old to join now but I will work like a rat in a munitions factory for the rest of my days if it is needed to defeat these monsters for the sake of my children.
Then our grandchildren will know the story of when humanity made the tough decisions to remove a persistent evil from it’s midst.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:05 amThe interesting part is that they’re basing their own supposed power on self-delusion; that we won’t respond to their attacks.
Kinda explains why the only Iranian I know is a full-bore Obama supporter. The weakness he’ll bring to American government is Iran’s best hope to become a greater power.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:14 amIf we NUKE Iran what about all the oil? Hell if we waste all that money destroying them might as well get something out of it. You have to look at what we have to gain. That’s why I say we start dropping NEUTRON Bombs. Killes anyone in a city just like any old nuke, but there is less radiation, and the best part is we’ll be able to take their oil afterwards. Now there’s a war where the Lefties can cry about oil all they want and it won’t make a difference. Crying and bitching never brought anyone back to life.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:10 amAww how cute they think their navy can challenge the best one on the planet. If they continue behaving like a tantrum throwing toddler they’re going to get spanked. Hard.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:05 amRob, wasn’t thinking about the oil, this is not about oil.
Were the Greco-Persian wars over oil?
F*ck ‘em, if the euros and asians need that oil they should not be such bitches.
We have quite a bit, and so does Venezuela.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:07 am“The Zionist regime doesn’t have the necessary political, economic and social capabilities to start a big war,” he said. If Israel attacks, US forces in the region “will be put in serious danger. Definitely, the Americans don’t want to get involved in a fourth front after conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Georgia.”
Bring it on mfer! You DON’t your asses handed to you AGAIN by fking with our Navy. We WILL hand you yoru ass by DESTROYING both your Navy and your Airforce. You MIGHT get teh first shot in but we will get the last one.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:56 amSo, let me get this straight….
We’re supposed to be afraid of douche bags in ski boats? Cause they might chip the paint on the bow of a destroyer? What? I don’t get it.
Ok, they think they are a nuclear power, and forget that Saddam Hussein tried for years to bluff as though he had so many WMD’s until it caught up with him. Seems to me that we have the rope, we have the mobility, we have the ability, I say we test his ass. Oh, yeah, we just sold bunkerbusters to Israel, that’s right. Hmm, we might just be testing him.
First missile that leaves Iran headed for a US friendly nation will be the last Iranian made object in the skies of Iran, I can almost guarantee that. Oil or no oil, I haven’t wiped my ass with a Kuffiyah in a long time. I say we start exporting some love to Iran. Send the opposition parties some support.
I know! We can send them San Fransisco! They would LOVE to have all that gay love…Oh, I forgot, they don’t have gay over there. (Yes, I said gay and not gays, simply repeating Ahwannadickhard)
September 16th, 2008 at 1:46 pmFunny this is announced on the day oil drops below $100/barrel. Looks like the want to urge the price back up .. they need/want the money. LMAO … what a bunchh of transparent idiots … Must be cause they took their training from the Russians
September 16th, 2008 at 1:47 pm