Iran: a quickly evolving geopolitical imbroglio – part IV

By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
January 12, 2012

The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70)

Last night James Corbett and I discussed the situation with Iran and the Persian Gulf which is progressing at a blinding pace on his show, Corbett Report Radio.

Since then, a considerable amount has happened and that was less than 24 hours ago. It is nearly impossible for one person to round up all of these events for you but I am doing the best I possibly can if I miss something please do not hesitate to contact me at Admin@EndtheLie.com

If this is the first part of the series you have come across, please take a few moments to go over parts one, two and three to get a better sense of what is going on here and the events leading up to what we are now witnessing.

You also might want to read parts one and two of the “U.S. and NATO are on the march worldwide” series to get a better sense of the global scale of this geopolitical strategy.

Today a significant step forward (or backward, depending on your point of view) with a NATO Parliamentary Assembly member made some heated statements regarding Iran, Kuwait, and the region in general.

The first jab at Iran in the piece published by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) comes in the opening sentence in calling the Persian Gulf “the Arabian Gulf.”

The Deputy Chairman of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Defense and Security Committee Francesco Buzzi addressed the Iranian threats to close the critical Strait of Hormuz, which Corbett rightly characterized as a flashpoint, while telling Tehran “to observe international treaties and laws and to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and borders of its Gulf neighbors, ‘mainly the friendly State of Kuwait.’”

The following choice of words should be noted: “The veteran NATO MP voiced total solidarity with the State of Kuwait versus the Iranian move.”

This shows they are already creating the alliances and regional infrastructure required to wage war with Iran.

Furthermore, it clearly shows which side Kuwait is on while highlihgting the fact that these individuals believe Iranian aggression is not only inevitable but already occurring.

Buzzi also pushed for a more aggressive political and diplomatic approach on the part of the European Union, in which the Italian government would take a more active role.

This shows just how divorced from reality these NATO bureaucrats are. With Italy’s immense domestic woes weighing heavily upon the Italian people, Buzzi actually thinks the government should be focusing on the non-threat that is Iran.

Buzzi is also apparently an advocate of European economic sanctions against Iran, which will likely be discussed in the meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers at the end of the month.

This – of course – is Iran’s red line which they said would force them to close the Strait of Hormuz.

As I said on Corbett Report Radio, I find this prospect quite unrealistic, due to the fact that the Iranian government is well aware of the fact that they would be leaving themselves open to a massive attack from the United States.

When they first threatened to close the strait the United States Fifth Fleet, based out of nearby Bahrain, countered with threats of their own.

I do not believe the Iranian leadership is foolish enough to believe that the United States military would not make good on their threats, especially when it comes to a resource like oil.

Another Italian, Pieradrea Vanni, president of the Kuwaiti-Italian Friendship Society, expressed a similar sentiment to that of Buzzi in calling “on the Italian government to support an EU initiative for a decisive action against Iran, which he said is seeking to destabilize the Gulf region.”

I would counter Vanni’s claim that it is Iran destabilizing the region by asking him why the United States is moving even more naval forces into the region, making a concerted and public push to arm neighboring states and holding the largest joint Israeli-American drill in history at a time like this.

Is it really Iran that is seeking to destabilize the region which is so critical to their infrastructure, or perhaps could it be that it is the United States, NATO and the West in general that is destabilizing the region in order to firm up their grip on the Gulf and exploit the unmatched oil resources?

An event which just served to reinforce the assertion that the United States is in fact the nation destabilizing the Gulf was the announcement of additional warship movement in the region.

Of course the United States is not alone, indeed as I previously mentioned, the British are moving their most advanced warship into the region as well, far from what this tense situation needs.

Unsurprisingly, like in the previous instances of American naval vessels entering the region, United States officials deny this has anything to do with tensions over the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, “Her deployment in that area is routine, long-planned – there’s nothing unusual about that.”

According to RT, the USS Carl Vinson has yet to go through the Strait of Hormuz and has a capacity of up to 80 planes and helicopters and is accompanied by a cruiser and destroyer.

The Pentagon says that the ships are “not in the Gulf,” but instead in the Area of Responsibility of the United States Fifth Fleet.

Other than the Persian Gulf, this includes the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea and some of the Indian Ocean.

The United States is now claiming that the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier is not expected to return to the Gulf after it recently passed through the Strait of Hormuz – a move which infuriated Iran.

However, the American Navy has indeed stated that the USS Carl Vinson will be joined by the USS Abraham Lincoln, yet another aircraft carrier which is currently in transit from the Indian Ocean.

The United States is also stepping up the sanctions war against Iran, with Japan agreeing to adopt harsh sanctions against importing Iranian oil today.

“We plan to start reducing this 10 per cent share [of Iranian oil imports that make up the Japanese energy market] as soon as possible in a planned manner,” Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azume said.

One interesting piece in this international jigsaw puzzle I discussed with Corbett last night is the duality of India’s approach to Iran.

As I have been outlining in my series, “U.S. and NATO are on the march worldwide,” India is becoming increasingly close with the United States in the Western bid to control the Asia-Pacific region.

While India is growing closer to the United States and NATO by the day, they still have a considerably tight relationship with Iran.

According to RT, Reuters reports via sources in the Indian cabinet that their government is not looking “to waver” from the American approach to Iran.

India currently pours a whopping $12 billion per year into Iranian oil and is the largest purchaser of Iran’s oil after China.

However, India has chosen to deal with Iranian oil outside of the United States dollar, a move which the US has oddly left unaddressed.

Oddly enough, it is not just India that is now dealing with Iran outside of the dollar, indeed Russia, China and surprisingly even Japan have decided to make the same move, according to Iranian Fars News Agency.

It’s quite interesting that Japan would get on board with the Western oil sanctions against Iran seeing as they have opted to deal with the supposedly dangerous nation outside of the dollar completely.

There is also the matter of the Fujairah pipeline, the construction of which has been accelerated and is now slated for testing in May.

This pipeline is set to be able to move 1.4 million barrels per day of oil, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz bottleneck.

Interestingly, RT points to a possible spark which could ignite the flames of World War III as being the killing of an American citizen convicted of espionage in Iran.

They link this to the infamous assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 which many argue sparked World War I.

They also posit that the Strait of Hormuz might be the spark; something which I think is more likely, especially given the upcoming massive Israeli-American drills which might coincide with Iranian military exercises in the region as well.

They rightly point out, “Right now it is a war of words,” and I do not think that Iran will take the first step unless they are forced to do so or backed into a corner and truly feel threatened.

I believe that it is not Israel that should be speaking of an “existential threat,” instead it should be Iran which is becoming increasingly encircled, isolated and threatened by a massive navy and powerful group of allied nations.

January 13, 2012 | Categories: Iran, news, tyranny, war | Leave a comment

Iran: a quickly evolving geopolitical imbroglio – part III

By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
January 8, 2012

The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, seen here pictured from the International Space Station (ISS) on September 30, 2003 (Photo credit: NASA)

Note: the last post was supposed to go up yesterday but for some reason it disappeared (something which has been happening disturbingly often) so it had to be reposted today.

Before you proceed with the third part in this fast-moving series, I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with previous events by reading parts one and two.

In the past two days the situation with Iran became increasingly more volatile, all while the American establishment media wastes time distracting the people of the United States with the dog and pony show that is the Republican primaries.

Thankfully, there are plenty of people – outside the limelight of broadcast news – who are covering these dire developments in detail.

However, as I always point out, this is often done in bits and pieces without presenting the whole picture to give readers a true sense of what is going on in the world.

Creating a more complete understanding is exactly what I’m attempting to do in this series although I cannot possibly cover it all on my own, so if I miss something, please feel free to send me an email at Admin@EndtheLie.com to correct my error.

Despite the constant pressure being put on Iran from the West due to their alleged nuclear weapons program, which the Iranians repeatedly insist is purely peaceful, Iran has announced a new uranium enrichment site.

This site is strategically located underground and has been said to be protected from airstrikes as well as getting the somewhat dubious title of “bomb-proof.”

The Atlantic Wire claimed that this new, supposedly “bomb-proof facility” (which is highly doubtful given that nothing on Earth is truly completely bomb-proof, just as nothing is truly bullet-proof) can not only be used to create enriched uranium for nuclear power generation, “but also as a potential fuel for nuclear weapons.”

This new facility is reportedly called Fordo, near the holy city of Qom and two conflicting reports have already emerged regarding the operational status of the site.

Kayhan daily, the manager of which is reportedly a representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported, “Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility amid heightened foreign enemy threats.”

However, the Iranian nuclear chief Fereidoun Abbasi stated that Iran will “soon” begin to enrich uranium at the Fordo facility, completely contradicting the report published by Kayhan in a front-page article.

The Associated Press said, “It was impossible to immediately reconcile the two reports.”

While Iran had begun enriching uranium at the Natanz facility in April of 2006, the centrifuges at Fordo are reportedly more efficient and the plant is better shielded form an aerial assault like that which was launched by Israel against Syria in 2007.

In the face of growing threats from the West as the European Union’s Foreign Ministers plan on meeting on January 30 to discuss possibly increasing sanctions against Iranian oil exports, the Iranian government has renewed its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian Khorasan daily cited a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who said that the Iranian leadership has already made the decision to order the closure of the strait if Iranian oil exports are blocked.

The commander, Ali Ashraf Nouri, stated that the decision has been made by the top authorities in Iran, and it is not the first time Iran has threatened to do so.

However, as the Associated Press pointed out, “this is the strongest statement yet that a closure of the strait is official policy.”

While I believe it is highly unlikely that the Strait will be closed by Iran, the United States seems to be taking it quite seriously.

Today the United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta stated that a move to close the Strait of Hormuz would cross a “red line” adding, “We made very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.”

On the CBS show “Face the Nation” chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey backed up Panetta’s statement in saying, “we would take action and reopen the Strait,” obviously implying military intervention.

To make matters even worse, the British have deployed the HMS Daring, a Type 45 Destroyer which is obviously intended to send a not-so-subtle message to Iran due to their threats to close the strait, not to mention their large-scale naval exercises and announcement of even more drills focusing on the Strait of Hormuz to come in the near future.

Just like his American counterpart, the British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond has warned Iran not to block the strait.

The HMS Daring is reportedly equipped with new missile interception technology allowing it to intercept any Iranian missile along with what Haaretz calls “the world’s most sophisticated naval radar.”

Emphasizing the missile interception capability is likely being done because of the recent Iranian ballistic missile tests which occurred in the final stages of their recent 10-day-long naval exercise.

There is also the matter of the increasingly tight relationship between Russia and Iran, which recently became even closer than it was previously.

The Iranian Fars News Agency (FNA) reported that the Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Reza Sajjadi stated that during a meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Medvedev proposed replacing the US dollar with the ruble and rial in their trade.

It appears that this is already being implemented with Sajjadi stating that “we have acted on this basis and a part of our interactions is done in Ruble now.”

“There is a similar interest in the Russian side,” Sajjadi added, pointing out that the Russians oppose unilateral sanctions on Iran made outside the United Nations Security Council.

He emphasized their distaste with sanctions focused on the Iranian Central Bank (CBI) which is what the latest round of American sanctions targeted.

“The move (imposing sanction on the CBI) is unacceptable. Russians have clearly announced that they will not accept these sanctions and Iran’s nuclear issue is resolvable just through negotiations,” Sajjadi said.

Ahmadinejad has been similarly defiant, stating that the central bank would respond with “force” to new American sanctions, adding that the bank was strong enough to defeat “enemy plans.”

This is part of a larger move to separate Iran from the dollar as much as possible, including eliminating the dollar entirely from Iranian oil trade with China, India and Japan.

The latter two countries are quite surprising when one considers the increasingly close relationship between Japan, India and the United States in the West’s quest to extend hegemony over the entirety of the Asia-Pacific region.

One must wonder if the United States would speak out against Japan and India’s trade ties with Iran or if they will hypocritically remain silent because they are critical allies in the region.

I tend to believe that it would likely be the latter as the United States has a long history of hypocrisy when it comes to foreign policy (and domestic policy for that matter).

We must also consider the fact that Iran is reaching out to form new alliances across the globe, apparently focusing on Latin America and Africa.

Yesterday Ahmadinejad arrived in Venezuela and is now embarking on a tour of four nations during which he will reportedly be pushing for investment projects like a hydro-electric plant in Ecuador, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg characterizes this as “taking shots at the U.S. in its own backyard, defying attempts to isolate Iran over its nuclear activities” and the friends he is making are not on the friendliest of terms with the American government.

Of course this includes Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Raul Castro of Cuba and this will be his fifth trip to the region since 2005.

However, the moves towards Africa will likely make an even greater stir as the Iranian nuclear chief stated that Iran is prepared to assist “friendly” African nations that possess uranium reserves to establish facilities which can process natural uranium into material for nuclear programs.

Fereidoun Abbasi highlighted Iran’s ability to carry out the entire nuclear fuel cycle from extraction of uranium to fuel production and thus is willing and able to share the technology.

Given that the West is pushing incredibly hard for Iran to shut down any and all nuclear programs, it is unlikely to make anyone happy to know that Iran will be expanding their reach into Africa and providing allied nations with the means to produce nuclear fuel.

With the increasingly rapid buildup in the region and the move to arm Western allies that surround Iran, along with the American-Israeli drills which very well might coincide with the upcoming Iranian drills, it all seems like this situation is making an unfortunate turn.

Again, all we can hope is that those in power aren’t insane enough to engage in a conflict they know full well could – and likely would – spark World War III.

January 13, 2012 | Categories: Iran, news, tyranny, war | Leave a comment

Iran: a quickly evolving geopolitical imbroglio – part II

By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
January 8, 2012

The situation with Iran seems to be getting worse by the day with tensions rising due to the actions of both Western nations like the United States, Israel, and allied states in the region and sadly Iran as well.

As I recently outlined in part one of “Iran: a quickly evolving geopolitical imbroglio”, this issue is a multifaceted and convoluted one with serious consequences, just as is the case with NATO.

It is quite unfortunate that this escalation is continuing – if not accelerating – as there is nothing good that could come from yet another bloody conflict.

Coming on the heels of a large-scale 10-day-long naval exercise carried out by Iran in the Persian Gulf, which included several test missile launches, Iranian officials have announced yet another drill.

According to Russia’s RIA Novosti, the Iranian Fars news agency has reported that Iran is going to conduct a new “massive” naval exercise, which will unsurprisingly be held near the Strait of Hormuz.

Not only is the Strait of Hormuz an area through which an estimated 40 percent of the world’s oil supply flows, but also one which has been sparking heated rhetoric from Iran and the United States Fifth Fleet out of Bahrain.

The Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would be conducting the “greatest naval war games” near the strait.

The drill is codenamed “The Great Prophet” and will likely coincide with, or at least be quite close to, the immense joint naval exercises to be carried out by the United States and Israel in the near future, which I covered in part one of this series.

Recently, the Associated Press reported on this “largest-ever joint drill” codenamed “Austere Challenge 12” while citing an unnamed senior military official who stated that the exercise would be held in the next few weeks.

The Associated Press makes sure to point to the Israeli military’s claim that the drill was planned a long time ago and thus not tied to recent events, although this buildup is far from something that has just occurred recently.

The announcement of “The Great Prophet” comes soon after the United States passed new sanctions which target Iranian oil experts and European Union Foreign Ministers are planning to meet and discuss banning Iranian oil imports in late January.

The sanctions are aimed at forcing Iran to drop their alleged secret nuclear weapons program but since Iran denies these claims entirely, this can only mean that the West expects Iran to stop pursuing peaceful nuclear technology as well.

This leads one to wonder why it is only Western nations and those aligned with Western interests that are allowed to pursue civilian nuclear technology.

This is especially questionable given the non-existent moral authority the West can claim, especially when it comes to the usage of nuclear weaponry.

A great example of this is the situation with India and Australia, where the latter nation is furnishing natural uranium to the former which is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Unsurprisingly, the West stays silent since India is a key player in the United States and NATO’s move to dominate the Asia-Pacific region with a multilateral alliance between India, Australia, Japan, America and NATO.

Despite the West’s constant pressure and new sanctions, Iran just announced that their Bushehr nuclear power plant is only weeks away from operating at full capacity.

The state-run IRNA stated that the plant will be able to create 1,000 megawatts of energy by Feburary 1 while the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Feireidoun Abbasi, stated that they have already shown the new domestically produced centrifuges to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) representative.

The naval commander of the IRGC Ali Fadavi stated that exercises coming up in February would focus directly on the Strait of Hormuz.

It is hard to argue that the Iranian military is attempting to display dominance over the region as Iranian officials recently threatened to close the strait if more sanctions are brought against the nation.

As I mentioned in my previous writing, Iran has also made an ambiguous threat to the United States if another aircraft carrier were to sail through the strait.

Yet the Vancouver Sun states that the Bahrain-based United States Fifth Fleet “is far more powerful than Iran’s naval force” while pointing out to the counter-threats made by the American military and an equally opaque threat from the British who stated that any attempt made at closing the strait would not only be illegal but unsuccessful.

One might assume that they are implying that the West would make sure it was unsuccessful, obviously employing force of some kind or another.

The upcoming “Great Prophet” exercise, which is actually Great Prophet-7, part of a series of exercises, is in fact not the only drill to be or being conducted by Iran.

Today a senior military commander reported that the IRGC has in fact already started military drills, codenamed “Martyrs of Unity.”

The Commander of IRGC Ground Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour stated that phase one of the drills began today near Khaf city in the Khorasan province of Iran.

Pakpour added that the main phase will begin this coming Monday, according to Iran’s Press TV and China’s Xinhua.

Despite the Pentagon’s warnings in late December against interfering with maritime transportation through the Strait of Hormuz, the Deputy Commander of the IRGC, Brigadier General Hossein Salami stated that Tehran need not seek Washington’s permission to implement its defense strategies in the Persian Gulf.

A bit of a different impression was given by Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast who stated that the Persian Gulf is critical for the global energy supply and as such Iran is not intentionally creating tension.

“But if the atmosphere changes into a war spirit and the situation in the region changes, all the decisions (of Iranians) would be made on the basis of new condition,” Ramin Mehmanparast told China’s Xinhua.

This gets in to the ambiguous territory of the other threats issued by Iranian officials as well as those so-called warnings the United States has given.

When asked about the possible sanctions by EU member states, which will be debated on January 30, Mehmanparast said that the Iranian oil supply cannot be replaced in the global crude oil trade and thus the market cannot easily cut the nation with the fourth largest oil reserves in the world out of the equation.

This is quite accurate as it would not only hurt the Iranian people, it would also create stratospheric gas prices here in America.

The Vancouver Sun reports that the people of Iran are already being negatively impacted by the Western sanctions, writing, “The sanctions are already hurting ordinary Iranians, faced with rising prices and a falling rial currency. They have been lining up at banks to convert their savings into dollars.”

This is precisely what so many individuals, myself included, in the alternative news community have been saying since these sanctions were first being pushed for.

It is inevitable that the only people who are hurt by sanctions are those at the bottom of the food chain, the everyday people who do not have the ability to combat the crippled economic climate.

Of course this is never what is highlighted by the government and establishment media outlets when covering the successes of non-violent intervention via sanctions, but it is the ugly truth as we have seen in the past with Iraq.

The most concerning aspect of these latest developments is the possibility that both the joint American-Israeli exercises and the Iranian drills could occur simultaneously and some conflict could ensue.

Hopefully it is just more saber rattling on both sides but the timing of these maneuvers couldn’t be worse in terms of the possible implications.

If the IRGC decides to temporarily close the Strait of Hormuz as part of one of their exercises, one can only imagine the brutal response that would follow at the hands of not only the United States Fifth Fleet but also the other forces that will be participating in the operations with Israel.

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January 13, 2012 | Categories: Iran, news, tyranny, war | Leave a comment

Iran: a quickly evolving geopolitical imbroglio

By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
January 5, 2012

As the days go by, the situation with Iran just gets increasingly complex and worrisome given the egregious saber rattling coming from both the West and Iran alike.

As I outlined in my article entitled “Positioning for war with Iran?”, it has become clear that the West is either arming surrounding neighbors as a deterrent, preparation for an unprovoked strike, or perhaps even to goad Iran into attacking Western interest first, thus justifying brutal retaliation.

My fledgling series about the global growth of NATO and the Western empire also covers aspects of this greater trend and how these issues constantly evolve and how so many seemingly disconnected events are in fact inseparably linked.

While these issues may seem disconnected for some, I think it is quite important to point out that in fact they couldn’t be more closely related in that they are both symptoms of the cancerous war profiteering industry that is not only robbing the American people blind in the name of freedom but also eliminating our civil liberties and slaughtering innocent people around the globe.

The situation surrounding Iran is just a microcosmic example of this greater trend to isolate and eliminate anyone who bucks the status quo and attempts to throw a wrench into the works of the global geopolitical-financial machine.

Recently, Iran closed their 10-day-long naval exercise in the Persian Gulf by testing multiple missiles, a move which clearly enraged the Western powers which believe that only they are allowed to wield any military power.

Three missiles were tested, including the shore-to-sea Qader missile, shorter range Nasr and surface-to-air Nour missile.

These tests come on the heels of a medium-range surface-to-air missile was successfully launched just days earlier.

The timing of these missile tests are very unlikely to be pure coincidence given the heated rhetoric coming from both sides, not to mention the presence of American vessels in the region.

Part of the large-scale exercises being conducted in the Gulf by the Iranian navy included “mock” exercises focusing on closing the Strait of Hormuz.

What exactly a mock exercise could be is not clear to me given that an exercise, by definition, is mocking a real event.

Despite the implications of such an exercise, Iran claimed to have no real intention to close the strait, a move which the American Fifth Fleet out of Bahrain spoke out against.

“No order was give[n] for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But we are prepared for various scenarios,” the chief of the Iranian navy, Habibollah Sayyari, said to Iranian state television.

The French government quickly spoke out against the testing and exercises, although France is hardly capable of claiming moral authority given their involvement in the Ivory Coast.

The French called the Iranian missile testing a “very bad signal sent to the international community,” since, once again, only Western nations who do what they’re told are allowed to defend themselves or develop weaponry of any kind.

Bernard Valero, the spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, said that the Iranian government should remind themselves of the “freedom of navigation in straits and the need to maintain a favorable climate in respect to this freedom.”

Of course Valero is taking the typical double standard approach which has become all too common because I am sure Valero would have no problem with restricting Iranian movement if they decided it was necessary “to maintain a favorable climate.”

I find it interesting that the Iranian commander Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi told Iranian state media that the newly tested Qader missile was “built by Iranian experts,” given that one of their most key ballistic missile experts was killed in a mysterious explosion back in November.

Mousavi also stated that the Qader missile is “ultra-modern … with an integrated, ultra-precise radar whose range and intelligent anti-detection system have been improved over previous generations.”

The emphasis on the anti-detection system is quite interesting given the build-up of anti-missile defense systems in the region, including the nonsensical American funding of Israeli systems.

That being said, the Qader is an anti-ship missile, leading me to speculate that it might be attempting to send a message to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet which has been operating in the region.

This is the same fleet that warned Iran against any attempt at closing the Strait of Hormuz recently.

The Nour missile is reportedly based on a Chinese design, something which would likely result in China getting a great deal of flak if it was ever used against Western interests.

Despite the growing international opposition to just about everything Iran does, the powers that be in Iran remain defiant and even boastful.

This is evidenced by the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that there has been “eye-catching successes” in the Iranian confrontation of Western powers in spite of sanctions.

Khamenei stated that the trend will not end and that, “The enemy is repeatedly suffering defeats and setbacks, despite its all-out security and political measures against the Islamic Republic.”

Iran has also just commissioned their first wholly owned oil drilling rig in the Persian Gulf, according to a statement from the North Drilling Company’s managing director to the Tehran Times.

Since all of the rigs which have been installed over the past 29 years have been rented, this is a considerable step forward for Iran and involved an investment of $153 million.

This development is also interesting due to the fact that the oil field where the new Sahar-e 1 will be deployed is shared with nearby Qatar, a nation which is totally aligned with Western interests as evidenced by them admitting that they were running operations on the ground during the sham Libyan revolution.

There is also the matter of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran announcing that they successfully produced and tested their first domestically produced nuclear fuel rod made out of natural uranium.

Despite the fact that Iran repeatedly insists that their program is a purely peaceful one, individuals in the West have seen this latest development as a significant threat, despite all the indicators that Iran has no interest in preemptively striking Western interests or allies.

Olli Heinonen, former deputy director general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency and head of the safeguards department claimed in the British Guardian that “this show of ostensibly civilian nuclear progress could end up further stoking international tensions.”

Heinonen’s analysis appears to be the typically politicized, highly biased information coming out of all UN agencies.

Even James Acton, a senior associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told Bloomberg, “This has some diplomatic significance and virtually no military significance.”

Furthermore, Iranian news agencies have stated that the fuel rod will be used in the core of Tehran’s research reactor in order to make isotopes for cancer treatments.

Recently Iran also stated that Iran would not tolerate another instance of an American carrier entering the Persian Gulf as the John C. Stennis did recently.

“Iran will not repeat its warning … the enemy’s carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf,” Iranian army chief Ataollah Salehi said according to IRNA, the Iranian state news agency.

While Salehi did not pinpoint which vessel he was talking about nor what actions they would take if any returned, it is clear he was talking about the John C. Stennis and associated vessels which entered the region during supposedly routine operations.

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz is complicated greatly by some new developments including the United States Navy announcing the development of new long-range drones, some of which will be assigned to the Fifth Fleet – the same fleet which has been countering Iranian threats to close the strait.

Others will be deployed to the Sixth Fleet out of the Mediterranean, specifically operating out of Sigonella, Sicily and the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific, specifically operating out of Guam.

There are also four of the currently unnamed Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) systems to be deployed to a “secret location in the Middle East.”

This is pertinent because one naval expert cited by Stars and Stripes claimed that BAMS could be used to track “Iranian threats to shipping in the Persian Gulf.”

No specifics on the missions these drones will carry out have been released, although the crafts are able to fly 24-hour-long missions every three days and can reportedly track hundreds of suspicious vessels at one time.

The relevance to the unfolding Iran imbroglio was highlighted by retired Navy Captain and senior follow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington D.C., Jan Van Tol, who said, “This is obviously an important mission, especially in view of current tensions.”

The new drones will supposedly help prevent Iranian vessels packed with explosives from swarming American vessels, a threat which appears to have been pulled out of thin air just as most justifications for absurd military spending and intervention are.

The initial contract for just two drones is worth a shocking $1.6 billion and Northrup Grumman expects to manufacture 68 more, but the price is still being negotiated.

How can we continue to justify this massive expenditure when there is no real threat to our national security, nor is there any money to be spending in the first place?

Apparently our so-called leaders have no problem putting the American people on the hook for decades to come in order to keep the money flowing into their cronies’ coffers.

Raytheon also just announced that they have delivered the first upgraded Patriot missile radar to Kuwait, a nation which borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia, while also sharing the Persian Gulf and thus obviously quite close to Iran.

This dovetails with the Western moves to arm other nearby countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia which I covered in my previous article.

The upgrading of Kuwaiti systems is being done under a U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command contract and the phony justification that it is being done to protect against missiles, while once again I must point out that Iran have never shown any intention to strike first as they clearly realize it would be a death sentence for the entire country.

This delivery is just the first of six radar modernization deliveries to Kuwait to supposedly “counter evolving regional threats,” a statement which clearly is pointing to Iran.

The Patriot systems defend against both manned and unmanned aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles all of which seems unjustified given that Iran really is not a threat.

There is also an upcoming missile defense exercise between the United States and Israel, which is billed as the largest ever exercise, which according to the Jerusalem Post is “expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.”

The timing of this drill, coming up in spring, is quite interesting indeed given the greater developments in the region, all of which seem to be tied together.

Back in September of 2011, the Jerusalem Post revealed that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and United States European Command (EUCOM) would be conducting the Juniper Cobra missile defense exercise followed by the massive Austere Challenge exercise this year.

Austere Challenge will include establishing American command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at the EUCOM headquarters in Germany, which the Jerusalem Post says has “the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces for the vevent of a future large-scale conflict in the Middle East.”

This looks even more likely in recent months and the timing of these two operations, along with these other developments covered in this article, must be either purposeful or ludicrously coincidental.

It appears that the United States and allied forces are attempting to do whatever it takes to provoke Iran and get them to do something which will justify an all-out, overt assault with the approval of the oft-invoked and laughably vague “international community.”

Once again, I must state that above all I just hope that I am completely wrong and that nothing will happen and these tensions will slowly fade and any and all threats from both sides will become a distant memory.

Unfortunately, that does not look like it is the case, at least at this stage.

Related posts:

1. Positioning for war with Iran?
2. Israeli strike on Iran looking more likely as Iran counters with their own threats, seeks Russian support
3. Iran ‘recommends’ US stay out of Persian Gulf
4. Is the Israeli Mossad conducting a covert assault on Iran?
5. Oil standoff: Iran, West on brink of war?

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January 13, 2012 | Categories: Iran, news, tyranny, war | Leave a comment