US ships 50 miles from Iran

Nearly 50 miles from Iran sails the nuclear-powered USS Eisenhower — never before has the U.S. flexed so much muscle so close to the Muslim nation. The move is a blunt warning to Iran: Don’t follow through on a threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes.
If Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear sites, Iran has promised to fill the strait’s waters with boats packed with explosives and mine the seabed.

“A $1,500 piece of explosive can take out hundreds of millions of assets in shipping and cargo,” said Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, commander of  Carrier Strike Group Eight.
With more jets, ships and nations — 30 — involved than in previous exercises, the U.S. has sent two aircraft carriers into the region.

Each carries more than 40 F-18 fighter jets that could reach thousands of miles into Iranian air space. In addition, each fighter jet has more firepower than the entire Iranian Air Force.
The international show of force is meant to reassure Israel and persuade Iran to not try anything — even if it is attacked. Read more >>

Pentagon: War Planning for Iran is Now The Most Pressing Scenario

USS George H.W. Bush transits through the Strait of Hormuz. 

The U.S. military is discussing significant changes in its war plans to adhere to President Obama’s new strategic guidance that downplays preparing for conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and counts on allies to provide additional troops.

War planning for Iran is now the most pressing scenario, or what the Pentagon calls a contingency.

U.S. Central Command believes it can destroy or significantly degrade Iran’s conventional armed forces in about three weeks using air and sea strikes, according to a defense source familiar with the discussions.

Such strikes are an option in a response to Tehran’s striking U.S. and international ships in the Persian Gulf and attempting to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil is transported. More...

U.S. aircraft carrier spotted in Iran wargames zone

Image via WikipediaA US aircraft carrier entered a zone near the Strait of Hormuz being used by the Iranian navy for wargames, an Iranian official said Thursday amid rising tensions over the key oil-transit channel.

“A US aircraft carrier was spotted inside the manoeuvre zone… by a navy reconnaissance aircraft,” Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesman for the Iranian exercises, told the official IRNA news agency.

The Iranian aircraft took video and photos of the US vessel, he added.

The US aircraft carrier was believed to the USS John C. Stennis, one of the US navy’s biggest warships.

US officials announced Wednesday that the ship and its accompanying battle group moved through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch at the entrance to the Gulf that is the world’s most important choke point for oil shipments.

After warnings from the Iranian government and navy this week that Iran could close the strait if threatened by further Western sanctions, the US Defence Department warned Wednesday that such actions “will not be tolerated.” More...

Attack On Iran Imminent, Warns Fidel Castro

Image via Wikipedia

by Fidel Castro
Last Friday, June 25, an international press agency known for the attention to details in its reports, published a statement by the “…Navy Commander of the elite Corps of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution General Ali Fadavi…,” warning “…that if the United States and its allies inspect Iranian ships in international waters ‘they will have their response in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.’”

The information was taken from the local news agency Mehr of Iran.

According to the press dispatch, said news agency reported that “Fadavi added that ‘the Navy of the Revolutionary Guardians currently has hundreds of vessels equipped with missile launchers.’”

The information, produced approximately at the same time of what Granma published or perhaps before, seemed at some points an exact copy of the Reflections elaborated on Thursday June 24th and ran by that paper on Friday 25th.

The coincidence can be explained by the simple use of a logical reasoning. I was completely unaware of what the Iranian local agency had published.

I have absolutely no doubt that as soon as the American and Israeli warships are deployed –alongside the rest of the American military vessels positioned off the Iranian coasts– and they try to inspect the first merchant ship from that country, there will be a massive launching of missiles in both directions. At that moment exactly the terrible war will begin. It’s not possible to estimate how many vessels will be sunk or from what country.

Knowing the truth timely is the most important thing for our people.

It doesn’t matter if almost everybody, I’d dare say 99.9% or more of my compatriots, instinctively cling to hopes and agree with my sincere wishes to be wrong. I have talked to people close to me, and I have also received news from many noble, selfless and hardworking people who have read my Reflections and do not challenge my considerations in the least but rather absorb, believe and swallow my reasoning through a dry throat; however, they immediately go back to the tasks to which they devote their energies.

That is precisely what we expect of our compatriots. But it would be worse to suddenly become aware of extremely gave events without having heard as much as a news about such possibility. Then there would be confusion and panic, and that would be unworthy of our heroic Cuban people, which was very close to becoming the target of a massive nuclear strike on October 1962, and still did not hesitate for a second in discharging its duty. More...