Iran denounces U.S. "nuclear threats," to hold drill (war games in Strait of Hormuz)

Source: Reuters

Iran's supreme leader denounced on Wednesday U.S. "nuclear threats" against the Islamic Republic, and its elite military force said it would stage war games in a waterway crucial for global oil supplies.

The Revolutionary Guards' exercises in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz this week take place at a time of rising tension between Iran and the West, which fears Tehran's nuclear program is aimed at developing bombs. Iran denies the charge.

Iran has also reacted angrily to what is sees as U.S. President Barack Obama's threat to attack it with nuclear arms.

Obama made clear this month that Iran and North Korea were excluded from new limits on the use of U.S. atomic weapons -- something Tehran interpreted as a threat from a long-standing adversary.

"The international community should not let Obama get away with nuclear threats," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday....


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K17320100421

It is their strait. They can buzz around in their silly boats as much as they want. Iran poses no military threat to us at all.

closing the Straits will hurt them a lot. Considering the precarious state of both their economy and political stability, it would be a huge gamble as to who would be hurt the worst - the industrial world or Iran's leadership.

I understand a huge part of their budget goes to subsidising gas imports. They can't cut the subsidies because they fear the backlash among the masses.

This way they could blame rising prices and shortages on the US, save all that money subsidising gasoline imports, alleviate air pollution, etc. No downside for the leadership.

popular anger is hard to focus or contain. The Iranians may have enough anger for both America and the Iranian leadership.

if the straits of hormuz were shut oil prices would be out of control, probably ending whatever hope of an economic recovery we have.

Iran is not involved in terrorism nearly as much is Israel & the US.
If Israel will not give up their nukes then the whole middle east should have them.

See Seymour Hersch's writings on the "Samson Option".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
http://www.carolmoore.net/nuclearwar/israelithreats.html

See also how in US war games the Iranians sank an entire carrier battle group, 2 a/c carriers & caused 20k US deaths.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wartech/nature.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002

Nobody itching for war with Iran has the interests of the US or world economy in mind.

warmongering tribalist, fascist scum, crawl back under your rocks.

:thumbsup:

Thanks for the links.

Iran got stomped when they mined the straight and would get kicked again if they in any way engage the US in any conflict.

Iran has control here and if they start a war, they will loose.

clarify what u are saying & provide links.

how can people w' 1000's of posts be spewing nonsense here?

Praying Mantis was a us naval operation in response to an Iranian act of war (mining international waters) that included the first missile only based warfare.

Iran lost, badly.

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

Source: New York Times

Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared Wednesday that President Obama’s new nuclear strategy amounted to “atomic threats against Iranian people,” and the Iranian military announced it would conduct a large military exercise in the Persian Gulf, where the United States and Israel have both increased their presence in recent months.

The ayatollah’s statement referred to the section of Mr. Obama’s “Nuclear Posture Review” that guaranteed non-nuclear nations that they would never be threatened by a United States nuclear strike — as long as they are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as judged by the United States.

Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, Gary Samore, Mr. Obama’s top adviser on unconventional weapons, said the wording of the nuclear review was “deliberately crafted” to exclude Iran and North Korea from the security guarantee, creating an incentive for both countries to come into compliance with the treaty. (While North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and is believed to have fuel for eight or more weapons, the United States has never acknowledged it as a nuclear-weapons state.)

Mr. Samore insisted that Mr. Obama’s decision did not amount to making a nuclear threat against Iran, which many Western countries believe is pursuing a weapon. The policy, Mr. Samore said, referred only to the use of nuclear weapons in the most extreme circumstances, which most experts believe means in retaliation for a strike against the United States or its allies.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/middleeast/22iran.html