Iran Super Thread- Merged

[CougarKing]

Why isn't the UK Royal Navy doing this, considering I recall they were building a base in the Persian Gulf/Bahrain?

Foreign Policy

Is The U.S. Navy Protecting British Ships From Iran?

In  response to a request from London, the U.S. Navy has agreed to begin accompanying British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of Iran’s detention of the Maersk Tigris cargo ship last week, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday.

The Maersk Tigris and its crew continue to be held by Iranian authorities over what Tehran says is a decade-old cargo dispute. But an international law scholar argued in Sunday’s Washington Post that there is “simply no basis” under the laws that govern maritime traffic “for arresting a ship for any debts incurred during prior voyages, and certainly not for those incurred by other ships.”

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[CougarKing]

Meanwhile the Saudis' insurance policy- nuclear weapons delivered from Pakistan- are only a plane ride away:

Reuters

France, Saudi Arabia: Iran nuclear deal must be verifiable, no threat to region

By John Irish

RIYADH (Reuters) - France and Saudi Arabia believe that any future nuclear accord between Iran and six major powers must be robust, verifiable and no threat to Tehran's neighbors, the two countries said ahead of a summit in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia invited French President Francois Hollande, whose country is deemed to have the toughest stance among the six world powers negotiating with Iran, to Riyadh to discuss regional issues with Gulf Arab leaders who fear a rapprochement with Tehran could further inflame the region.

"France and Saudi Arabia confirmed the necessity to reach a robust, lasting, verifiable, undisputed and binding deal with Iran," Hollande and the new Saudi King Salman said in a statement after meeting on Monday.

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[CougarKing]

And the Saudis further express their displeasure with Obama's current engagement efforts with Iran:

Reuters

King's absence from U.S. summit shows Saudi displeasure over Iran push

By William Maclean and Angus McDowall

DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) - The Saudi king's absence from a regional summit to be hosted by President Barack Obama shows how Gulf states, displeased by what they see as U.S. indifference to Iranian meddling in the Arab world, may hesitate to bless any nuclear deal with Tehran.

Analysts and diplomats in the Middle East described King Salman's decision to skip the meeting at Camp David this week as a snub, despite denials from U.S. officials and some Saudi insiders.

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[CougarKing]

Please note older posts on previous pages about a US carrier group's shadowing an Iranian convoy that forced the latter to turn back.

Reuters

Yemen truce starts after shelling, Iran sends cargo ship

excerpts:

CAIRO/ADEN (Reuters) - Saudi-led air strikes hit the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa hours before a five-day humanitarian truce took effect on Tuesday, and Washington cautioned against "provocative actions" after Iran dispatched a cargo ship to Yemen.

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And as the ceasefire neared, witnesses said the Saudi-led alliance bombed Houthi positions in the southern port of Aden, where local armed groups were still fighting the rebels.

The United States said it was tracking Iranian warships accompanying the vessel bound for Hodaida port, and urged Iran instead to use a U.N. distribution hub in Djibouti to provide help to people in the war-damaged Arabian Peninsula country.

"We would discourage any provocative actions," said U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke.

 

[CougarKing]

A nuclear deal hasn't been made yet and already Tehran has tried to acquire something...

Reuters

Exclusive: Czechs stopped potential nuclear tech purchase by Iran: sources
Wed May 13, 2015 5:12pm EDT

By Louis Charbonneau and Robert Muller

UNITED NATIONS/PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic blocked an attempted purchase by Iran this year of a large shipment of sensitive technology useable for nuclear enrichment after false documentation raised suspicions, U.N. experts and Western sources said.

The incident could add to Western concerns about whether Tehran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal being negotiated with world powers under which it would curb sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.

The negotiators are trying to reach a deal by the end of June after hammering out a preliminary agreement on April 2, with Iran committing to reduce the number of centrifuges it operates and agreeing to other long-term nuclear limitations.

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[CougarKing]

Meanwhile, at the US Congress...

Reuters

U.S. House passes Iran nuclear review legislation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to pass legislation giving Congress the right to review, and possibly reject, an international nuclear agreement with Iran.

The 400-25 vote sends the legislation to the White House, where administration officials have said President Barack Obama will sign it into law.

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Reuters

Obama seeks to reassure Gulf allies on Iran, security at summit

By Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton

CAMP DAVID, Md. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought to reassure Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies on Thursday of Washington's commitment to their security despite deep concern among Arab leaders about U.S. efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Iran.

Obama, hosting the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council for a rare summit at the Camp David presidential retreat, faced the challenge of allaying Gulf Arab fears that the possible lifting of international sanctions on Tehran would embolden it to further destabilize the region.

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[tomahawk6]

-The Gulf allies probably want any guarantees in writ ing.

 

[CougarKing]

Another incident involving Iranian vessels:

Reuters

Iran navy fires shots at tanker as tensions rise in Gulf
ReutersBy By Phil Stewart and Jonathan Saul | Reuters – 2 hours 50 minutes ago

By Phil Stewart and Jonathan Saul
WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian naval vessels fired shots at a Singapore-flagged tanker in the Gulf on Thursday, in what appeared to be Iran's latest attempt to settle a legal dispute by force with passing commercial vessels, U.S. officials said.

The incident unnerved the shipping industry just as President Barack Obama met with Gulf allies to try to allay their concerns that Iran would be empowered by a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for the West lifting sanctions.

U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said five Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy ships approached the Alpine Eternity oil products tanker at about noon (0800 GMT), prompting the ship to flee to safety in United Arab Emirates' waters

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[a_majoor]

Iran takes direct control of the Syrian military. They will certainly fight to the last Syrian IOT keep their supply corridor to Hezbollah open, perhaps another reason for us to look the other way when radicalized people want to go join ISIS. Nothing like a war where everyone we don't like gets to kill each other:

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/06/09/iran-takes-control-in-syria/

Iran Takes Control in Syria

Before deciding to commit some 20,000 troops to bolster its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Tehran sent its number one spy, General Qassem Soleimani, to the front to see why the Syrians were getting routed. Reports of his visit, and of the pep talks he gave while reviewing the troops, are beginning to emerge. The Times of London:

“Why are your heads down?” he was reported to have demanded. “The people of Syria have been paying their taxes to pay your wages for precisely such a day, so that you defend them against a band of evil beasts. Why have you lost your nerve now?”

Morale has been plummeting among Syrian troops and senior ranks alike amid a series of defeats for the regime. They include routs of isolated government posts where soldiers were posted almost solely to demonstrate the continued sovereignty of Damascus over the entire country.

Other setbacks appear to have been the result of tactical withdrawals, as in the case of Palmyra, which fell to Isis last month.

Now that Iranian commanders are on the ground, reports are trickling out of several officers and soldiers serving in the Syrian Army being executed on charges of desertion. Now News has the story:

The three officers, who were also accompanied by several soldiers, were accused deserting their duty and “betraying the homeland,” the daily reported Sunday.

According to the report, none of the other Syrian officers or soldiers present at the time were able to prevent the execution as “officers responsible for military operations in the Jourin area are under the command of Iranian officers.”

A Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander told the paper that “the regime has handed over the operations room to Iranian officers and leadership.”

Pour encourager les autres.

Sources told the Times that Tehran’s support for Assad is not ironclad—that they are most concerned about keeping a supply corridor to Hezbollah open—and that if the current assault fails, they could consider abandoning him. There’s no word, however, as to how Iran might keep that corridor open without Assad in place. So all eyes are on what happens next. A full-scale defeat for Iran and its allies in Syria remains, despite all the complications that would follow, our best hope for some kind of regional order in the Middle East.

 

[tomahawk6]

The Obama administration has set the stage for nuclear war between Israel and Iran.I do not doubt that Iran would use nuclear weapons to wipe out Israel.Of course Saudi Arabia isnt comfortable with a nuclear Iran and they have the means to buy nuclear weapons from Pakistan.This is truely a scary scenario.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

And your alternative solution would be......?

 

[tomahawk6]

The alternative is to stay the course with sanctions.Otherwise I think a nuclear Iran will be a major proliferator of nuclear weapons.North Korea helps Iran with missiles and in exchange they could get nuclear weapons.The trick is to obtain the technology to build nulear warheads for their missiles.Thats not easy to create on their own.Buying the technology would be easier.Whats to stop Japan from acquiring the technology ? Just time.

 

[Harrigan]

The Obama administration has set the stage for nuclear war between Israel and Iran.I do not doubt that Iran would use nuclear weapons to wipe out Israel.Of course Saudi Arabia isnt comfortable with a nuclear Iran and they have the means to buy nuclear weapons from Pakistan.This is truely a scary scenario.

I do. 

Exactly why would Iran commit national suicide by attacking Israel with a small number of nuclear weapons when Israel has so many more and would obviously retaliate?  It doesn't make any sense at all.

Harrigan

 

[George Wallace]

I do. 

Exactly why would Iran commit national suicide by attacking Israel with a small number of nuclear weapons when Israel has so many more and would obviously retaliate?  It doesn't make any sense at all.

Harrigan

A "FIRST STRIKE" may decimate those numbers.  Who knows what a 'madman' may do?

 

[Edward Campbell]

I do. 

Exactly why would Iran commit national suicide by attacking Israel with a small number of nuclear weapons when Israel has so many more and would obviously retaliate?  It doesn't make any sense at all.

Harrigan

Quite right: that's how MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) worked from the 1950s (when John von Nuemann coined the term) until the 1990s, when the USSR collapsed under the gross deadweight of the inherent nonsense that is communism.

MAD worked, for us, and could have worked for the USSR, too, if its leaders, generations of leaders, had even the brains the gods gave to green peppers. (But most real communists are socialists, and nearly all socialists are statists, and all statists are fools, so ...)

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Iran threatening Israel with extinction is just for public consumption.

The real threat (in the eyes of the Iranians) are the Saudis.

 

[jollyjacktar]

And not to just Iran either as far as I'm concerned.  They're a serious threat to many with their tacit support to many nasty organizations and spreading poison via the Wahhabi outreach setups.

 

[YZT580]

why launch against Israel?  For the same reason that ISIS followers are so willing to die: it will hasten the return of Mohammed and the installation of the final global Caliphate.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

That probably sells well to a certain segment in the Iranian sphere. I doubt it is a serious endeavour to most of the Iranian leadership, who would prefer hegemony over most the Middle East.

It is difficult to have hegemony over a smoking, radioactive wasteland....

 

[tomahawk6]

Gentlemen we are dealing with a regime who feels that creating the conditions for the coming of the 12th Imam.At the end of the day they want one relgion in the world and that is their brand of Islam.