Source: Voice of Russia
Boris Volkhonsky
Iran – U.S.: game of nerves and muscles
As reported by The Los Angeles
Times, The U.S. Navy is upgrading its defensive and offensive
capabilities in the Persian Gulf to counter threats from Iran to seize
the Strait of Hormuz and block the flow of oil.
Admiral
Jonathan W. Greenert told reporters that the Navy will add four more
mine-sweeping ships and four more CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters with
mine-detection capability. The Navy is also sending more underwater
unmanned mine-neutralization units to the region.
On
the other hand, according to reports, the Iranians have boasted that
they could “swarm” large U.S. ships with their smaller, fast-moving
craft. They have also reportedly been laying mines along their
coastline.
In January, the chief of the Iranian army
warned the U.S. not to send another ship to the Persian Gulf after the
aircraft carrier John C. Stennis departed. Another carrier, the Abraham
Lincoln, entered the gulf weeks later without incident.
Almost
simultaneously, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order
titled “National Defense Resources Preparedness.” The executive order,
published on the official White House website, “delegates authorities
and addresses national defense resource policies” “in times of national
emergency.” Several media have already labeled the document as an
attempt to impose a state of emergency in peacetime. In any case, this
is definitely a new indication of the U.S. readiness for any course of
development in the most volatile region of the world.
And,
as if to further strengthen the impression, The New York Times reported
on Monday that “a classified war simulation held this month to assess
the repercussions of an Israeli attack on Iran forecasts that the strike
would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United
States and leave hundreds of Americans dead.”
