Iranian commander threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to US

[webfact]

Iranian commander threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to US
AMIR VAHDAT, Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The deputy commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the United States and its allies if they "threaten" the Islamic Republic, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.

The comments by Gen. Hossein Salami, carried on state television, follow a long history of both rhetoric and confrontation between Iran and the U.S. over the narrow strait, through which nearly a third of all oil traded by sea passes.

The remarks by the acting commander of the Guard also follow those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who on Monday criticized U.S. activities in the Persian Gulf. It's unclear whether that signals any new Iranian concern over the strait or possible confrontation with the U.S. following its nuclear deal with world powers.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In his remarks, Salami said that "Americans should learn from recent historical truths," likely referring to the January capture of 10 U.S. sailors who entered Iranian waters. The sailors were released less than a day later, though state TV aired footage of the sailors on their knees with their hands on their heads.

"If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry," Salami said, without elaborating on what he and other leaders would consider a threat.

He added: "Americans cannot make safe any part of the world."

The U.S. and Iran have a long history of confrontations in the Persian Gulf. They even fought a one-day naval battle on April 18, 1988, after the near-sinking of the missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts by an Iranian mine. That day, U.S. forces attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sank or damaged six Iranian vessels.

A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people aboard.

U.S. Navy officials say they face near-daily encounters with Iranian naval vessels. In January, an unarmed Iranian drone flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, the first since 2014, according to Navy records obtained by The Associated Press.

The U.S. has also criticized what it called a "highly provocative" Iranian rocket test in December near its warships and commercial traffic. Iran said it has the right to conduct tests in the strait and elsewhere in Gulf.

Iran also sank a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier near the strait in February 2015 and has said it is testing "suicide drones" that could attack ships.

___

Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-05-04

[inzman]

Boy, like to see them try! The USA would unleash a shit storm on them, haha

[Boon Mee]

Lots of luck with that. Who does he think he is? Vlad Putin?

Only Putin can get away with taking Obama's face and making him look weaker.

Guess the rest of the world is stepping it up?

Edited May 4, 2016 by Boon Mee

[Jingthing]

This Iranian sheit will stop when "Hawk" Hillary gets in power!

[Boon Mee]

This Iranian sheit will stop when "Hawk" Hillary gets in power!

Very unlikely...

[Jingthing]

A number of hostile to the U.S. nations are playing games now because it's the end of Obama's time and they know the last thing he wants is to be involved in a new escalation anywhere. That dynamic will change instantly when President Clinton is inaugurated.

[Steely Dan]

Hossein Salami - Soon to become smoked Salami.

[JetsetBkk]

He added: "Americans cannot make safe any part of the world."

At least a part of what he said is true while there is an election going on.

And while there is a "no boots on the ground" weak democrat president.

Hillary a "hawk"?

[Jingthing]

Yes, Hillary is most definitely a hawk.

Trump is much more of an ISOLATIONIST in the tradition of racist American fascists such as Henry Ford.

Edited May 4, 2016 by Jingthing

[happy Joe]

US Navy shows its strength everywhere. Hormuz Strait, South China Sea, Baltic, Korea.

Thus it forces its potential opponent to arm themselves. We learn that Iranians now have drones defense pretext. But these weapons could be used later to other targets...

Who would believe that the Chinese do not prepare a strong response to the event. Same obviously for Putin's Russia. The common enemy is now USA.

And when we read here the Yank arrogance, we can understand why nobody wants them. US go home was said in my native country 40 years ago, This childish slogan becoming a global rallying cry.

Edited May 4, 2016 by happy Joe

[Rhys]

Lock and load boys, show time... my P is bigger than your P. shooter..

[Steely Dan]

Yes, Hillary is most definitely a hawk.

Trump is much more of an ISOLATIONIST in the tradition of racist American fascists such as Henry Ford.

Try to be honest. Trump has a daughter who identifies as Orthodox Jewish. Hillary has contacts with the rabidly anti-Israel Blumenthals not to mention a confidante with Muslim Brotherhood connections.

[Jingthing]

American Nazis support Trump. That is the honest truth.

[NeverSure]

Lots of luck with that. Who does he think he is? Vlad Putin?

Only Putin can get away with taking Obama's face and making him look weaker.

Guess the rest of the world is stepping it up?

China threatens shipping routes, claims SCS, Russia barrel rolls a fighter over the top of a US Navy plane, flies a plane up next to a US ship, Iran...

Obama's a wimp and they know it. He's an embarrassment before the whole world.

[up-country_sinclair]

First of all, let's try to remember that these comments were made by a Deputy Commander.

Secondly, take a close look at the first word in his statement. "If".

Finally, can you imagine the hysterics if Iranian ships were going in and out of the Gulf of Mexico every day? Or if they were going up and down the east coast? You can bet that someone in the US government would pop off just like this.

Much ado about nothing.

[Naam]

This Iranian sheit will stop when "Hawk" Hillary gets in power!

[RuamRudy]

"If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,"

Whilst I am unsure what provoked this particular comment, on the balance of things it doesn't seem unreasonable. If the Iranian navy was to have a similar presence in the Gulf of Mexico, I am certain that it would not go down so well with the self appointed defenders of the free world.

[Chicog]

Iranian commander all wind and piss.

[Publicus]

"If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,"

Whilst I am unsure what provoked this particular comment, on the balance of things it doesn't seem unreasonable. If the Iranian navy was to have a similar presence in the Gulf of Mexico, I am certain that it would not go down so well with the self appointed defenders of the free world.

It is not equal.

The ayatollahs are the bad guyz and we are the good guyz.

Get used to it cause it's true everywhere, to include the Old World elites of Russia, CCP China, North Korea, the Assads, Daesh (non state), Zimbabwe, the gold bugs of the Austrian school of economics and its Mad Max lunacy; the global right reactionaries who might be right under our noses.

USA has always done the post WW II heavy lifting by the conscious agreement of the Anglophile world, Europe, Nato, Japan, South Korea et al.

When the bad guyz in Tehran, Moscow, Beijing mention a Potus Hillary Clinton their nuts shrivel up. Other places too btw.

SecDef Ashton Carter is a hawk yet he is prudent. Carter ended 15 years of US strategic ambiguity by naming Russia as behind Door Number One, CCP China behind Door Number Two, Iran behind Door Number Three. The USN 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain for a reason.

This blather out of Iran is the Revolutionary Guards soiling and staining their revolutionary undergarments. They seized the Marines then let 'em go. They proved they were allowed to seize US Marines and that they let 'em go, virtually immediately. Nobody shot up anybody. The ayatollahs do not want an actual or serious incident.

Poof goes the Guards.

[chuckd]

How can anybody named after a sandwich be somebody to worry about?

[AYJAYDEE]

"If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,"

Whilst I am unsure what provoked this particular comment, on the balance of things it doesn't seem unreasonable. If the Iranian navy was to have a similar presence in the Gulf of Mexico, I am certain that it would not go down so well with the self appointed defenders of the free world.

It is not equal.

The ayatollahs are the bad guyz and we are the good guyz.

Get used to it cause it's true everywhere, to include the Old World elites of Russia, CCP China, North Korea, the Assads, Daesh (non state), Zimbabwe, the gold bugs of the Austrian school of economics and its Mad Max lunacy; the global right reactionaries who might be right under our noses.

USA has always done the post WW II heavy lifting by the conscious agreement of the Anglophile world, Europe, Nato, Japan, South Korea et al.

When the bad guyz in Tehran, Moscow, Beijing mention a Potus Hillary Clinton their nuts shrivel up. Other places too btw.

SecDef Ashton Carter is a hawk yet he is prudent. Carter ended 15 years of US strategic ambiguity by naming Russia as behind Door Number One, CCP China behind Door Number Two, Iran behind Door Number Three. The USN 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain for a reason.

This blather out of Iran is the Revolutionary Guards soiling and staining their revolutionary undergarments. They seized the Marines then let 'em go. They proved they were allowed to seize US Marines and that they let 'em go, virtually immediately. Nobody shot up anybody. The ayatollahs do not want an actual or serious incident.

Poof goes the Guards.

so international law depends on who a guy like you defines as good guys?? lol

[tonbridgebrit]

"If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,"

Whilst I am unsure what provoked this particular comment, on the balance of things it doesn't seem unreasonable. If the Iranian navy was to have a similar presence in the Gulf of Mexico, I am certain that it would not go down so well with the self appointed defenders of the free world.

It is not equal.

The ayatollahs are the bad guyz and we are the good guyz.

Get used to it cause it's true everywhere, to include the Old World elites of Russia, CCP China, North Korea, the Assads, Daesh (non state), Zimbabwe, the gold bugs of the Austrian school of economics and its Mad Max lunacy; the global right reactionaries who might be right under our noses.

USA has always done the post WW II heavy lifting by the conscious agreement of the Anglophile world, Europe, Nato, Japan, South Korea et al.

When the bad guyz in Tehran, Moscow, Beijing mention a Potus Hillary Clinton their nuts shrivel up. Other places too btw.

SecDef Ashton Carter is a hawk yet he is prudent. Carter ended 15 years of US strategic ambiguity by naming Russia as behind Door Number One, CCP China behind Door Number Two, Iran behind Door Number Three. The USN 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain for a reason.

This blather out of Iran is the Revolutionary Guards soiling and staining their revolutionary undergarments. They seized the Marines then let 'em go. They proved they were allowed to seize US Marines and that they let 'em go, virtually immediately. Nobody shot up anybody. The ayatollahs do not want an actual or serious incident.

Poof goes the Guards.

"A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people aboard."

[And the latest news flash. Sam, the American Bald Eagle has been killed. He was shot down by the USS Vincennes, after he was mistaken for being an aeroplane carrying 5,000 communists to Nicaragua.]

The above comment is bad taste parody of the paranoi of Washington.

But let's get real. The demonising of Muslims, Communists, enemies of the USA, it's been going on for decades.

The killing of the 290 people on that civilian flight. Washington did it, as a warning shot and act of violence against Iran. Iran responded by doing or sponsoring the guys who carried out the Panam Lockerbie bombing.

Both acts were outrageous acts of violence and terror against innocent people.

Ash Carter is producing the same cr__ that his leaders have been producing for ages.

[Emster23]

Let Iran take the first swing. It would also be their last.

[smutcakes]

Lots of luck with that. Who does he think he is? Vlad Putin?

Only Putin can get away with taking Obama's face and making him look weaker.

Guess the rest of the world is stepping it up?

China threatens shipping routes, claims SCS, Russia barrel rolls a fighter over the top of a US Navy plane, flies a plane up next to a US ship, Iran...

Obama's a wimp and they know it. He's an embarrassment before the whole world.

So what would Trump do in those situations? Bomb them?

[DeaconJohn]

"If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,"

Whilst I am unsure what provoked this particular comment, on the balance of things it doesn't seem unreasonable. If the Iranian navy was to have a similar presence in the Gulf of Mexico, I am certain that it would not go down so well with the self appointed defenders of the free world.

It is not equal.

The ayatollahs are the bad guyz and we are the good guyz.

Get used to it cause it's true everywhere, to include the Old World elites of Russia, CCP China, North Korea, the Assads, Daesh (non state), Zimbabwe, the gold bugs of the Austrian school of economics and its Mad Max lunacy; the global right reactionaries who might be right under our noses.

USA has always done the post WW II heavy lifting by the conscious agreement of the Anglophile world, Europe, Nato, Japan, South Korea et al.

When the bad guyz in Tehran, Moscow, Beijing mention a Potus Hillary Clinton their nuts shrivel up. Other places too btw.

SecDef Ashton Carter is a hawk yet he is prudent. Carter ended 15 years of US strategic ambiguity by naming Russia as behind Door Number One, CCP China behind Door Number Two, Iran behind Door Number Three. The USN 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain for a reason.

This blather out of Iran is the Revolutionary Guards soiling and staining their revolutionary undergarments. They seized the Marines then let 'em go. They proved they were allowed to seize US Marines and that they let 'em go, virtually immediately. Nobody shot up anybody. The ayatollahs do not want an actual or serious incident.

Poof goes the Guards.

so international law depends on who a guy like you defines as good guys?? lol

Really.

Good guyz... bad guyz.... This may have been the dude who drank the whole jug of Kool-Aid at last years' July 4th picnic.

[Credo]

Closing off the Straits would affect two countries. It is not under the sole jurisdiction of Iran.

[RuamRudy]

How can anybody named after a sandwich be somebody to worry about?

The sandwich was named in the 18th century after the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was also First Lord of the Admiralty - so he would have been definitely someone to worry about at the time.

[sanukjim]

Lots of luck with that. Who does he think he is? Vlad Putin?

Only Putin can get away with taking Obama's face and making him look weaker.

Guess the rest of the world is stepping it up?

Of course Obama is a pussy on the way out.How would you think Trump would act on this ? Now the Witch might give in altogether.

[RuamRudy]

Closing off the Straits would affect two countries. It is not under the sole jurisdiction of Iran.

But they are talking about closing it only to US shipping, and only in the event of the US threatening Iran - entirely justifiable in the event of any threat, altough now it could be described as a bit of unnecessary sabre rattling.

[sanukjim]

This Iranian sheit will stop when "Hawk" Hillary gets in power!

Very unlikely...

She will kowtow and that is why world leaders fear Trump because he wont give in.