U.S. Sends Four Anti-Mine Ships to Strait of Hormuz

Source: Priosn Planet
Paul Joseph Watson

With the USS Enterprise on its way to bring the number of US aircraft carriers located in the Persian Gulf up to three, the Navy has announced it will send four additional mine countermeasure ships to the Strait of Hormuz as tensions with Iran rise.

“Four additional mine countermeasure ships are being dispatched to the region in addition to further airborne mine countermeasure helicopters, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Navy budget hearing Thursday,” reports Stars and Stripes.

No date has been set for the deployment of the ships, but they will join the USS Enterprise, currently on its way to the Fifth Fleet area of operations, along with the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln, both of which are already patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.

“I came to the conclusion we could do better setting the theater,” Greenert told the committee while recounting a recent trip through the waterway on the USS John C. Stennis, which was under the watchful eye of Iranian naval vessels. “I wanted to be sure … that we are ready, that our folks are proficient, they’re confident, and they’re good at what they do in case called upon.”

The deployment of the anti-mine ships follows a warning by US intelligence at the end of December that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were preparing Iranian marine commandos to place mines along the strategic oil choke point.

While a temporary closure of the Strait would send oil prices soaring, analysts believe the US has the capability to clear the waterway of mines within a 24-48 hour period, meaning crude supplies would not be significantly disrupted.

However, yesterday’s news that that the United States and the UK are preparing to release emergency oil stocks within months has led to speculation that the decision on attacking Iran before the end of summer has already been green lighted.

Third Aircraft Carrier Group Coming To Iran

Source: Zero Hedge

For months now we have been following US naval developments and deployments in the Arabian Sea, which serve one purpose and one purpose only - to demonstrate US military strength in the Straits of Hormuz region and to keep Iranian 'offensive passions' subdued. Yet never has the US had a total of three aircraft carrier groups in the vicinity, always topping out at 2 in the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, most recently these being the CVN-70 Vinson and CVN 72 Lincoln, with a third boat present merely until a rotation in or out of the theater of operations was complete. That is about to change, and with it the prevailing price of Brent, which we are confident is about to take a new step wise price higher as the US makes it all too clear what the endgame is, because as Naval Today reports, the "US navy to deploy third carrier group to Persian Gulf", probably the CVN-77 George H.W. Bush which departed Norfolk two weeks ago according to the most recent naval update, or any other Norfolk-stationed aircraft carrier: there is a wide selection to chose from.

Source: Naval Today

The carrier group based in Norfolk, VA will also include a guided missile cruiser and three guided missile destroyers, reports Interfax.

USS Abraham Lincoln had already entered the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Jan 22. She is escorted by a guided missile cruiser and two destroyers (USN), one British and one French warships.

Meanwhile, another US Navy’s carrier strike carrier group headed by USS Carl Vinson is stationed eastward the Strait of Hormuz, in northern part of the Arabian Sea washing southwest coast of Iran.

At present, the US has 15,000-men force deployed in Kuwait, expeditionary marine battalion, and amphibious landing group.

Iran Threatens To Torpedo US Aircrafts

Source: Prison Planet
Paul Joseph Watson

Three US warships stationed in waters near Strait of Hormuz

A senior Iranian military commander has warned that Iran has the capability to sink US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf using detection-evading submarines that can fire torpedoes.

Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army’s Self-Sufficiency Jihad Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri, “Stated that Iran’s submarines are able to ambush and hit enemy vessels specially US Aircraft carriers from the seabed throughout the Persian Gulf,” reports the Fars News Agency.

Amiri said that while the United States was focused on Iran’s surface capabilities, the greater threat was posed by its fleet of submarines which, “Are noiseless and can easily evade detection as they are equipped with the sonar-evading technology and can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously.”

Amiri added that the submarines could “easily target and hit an aircraft carrier traversing in the nearby regions.”

After the US sailed the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier through the Strait of Hormuz in the midst of Iranian wargames, Iranian Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi warned America to keep its warships out of the region.

The US has made it clear that should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil choke point, a “red line” will have been crossed.

Three US aircraft carriers are now stationed just outside Iranian waters, in addition to 15,000 troops that were sent to Kuwait at the end of last week.

A massive joint naval drill between the US and Israel that was set to coincide with Iranian wargames later this month was postponed earlier this week, with explanations varying as to why the exercise was called off.

Russia, which has its own warships stationed in the region, today reiterated its opposition to a military strike on Iran, with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warning an attack would be a “catastrophe” for relations between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has stated that Israel is still “very far off” a decision on whether not not to attack Iran over its nuclear program.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

The Geo-Politics of the Strait of Hormuz: Could the U.S. Navy be defeated by Iran in the Persian Gulf?

Source: Global Research
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

After years of U.S. threats, Iran is taking steps which suggest that it is both willing and capable of closing the Strait of Hormuz. On December 24, 2011 Iran started its Velayat-90 naval drills in and around the Strait of Hormuz and extending from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman (Oman Sea) to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

Since the conduct of these drills, there has been a growing war of words between Washington and Tehran. Nothing the Obama Administration or the Pentagon have done or said so far, however, has deterred Tehran from continuing its naval drills. 

The Geo-Political Nature of the Strait of Hormuz
Besides the fact that it is a vital transit point for global energy resources and a strategic chokepoint, two additional issues should be addressed in regards to the Strait of Hormuz and its relationship to Iran. The first concerns the geography of the Strait of Hormuz. The second pertains to the role of Iran in co-managing the strategic strait in accordance with international law and its sovereign national rights.

The maritime traffic that goes through the Strait of Hormuz has always been in contact with Iranian naval forces, which are predominantly composed of the Iranian Regular Force Navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy. In fact, Iranian naval forces monitor and police the Strait of Hormuz along with the Sultanate of Oman via the Omani enclave of Musandam. More importantly, to transit through the Strait of Hormuz all maritime traffic, including the U.S. Navy, must sail through Iranian territorial waters. Almost all entrances into the Persian Gulf are made through Iranian waters and most exits are through Omani waters.

Iran allows foreign ships to use its territorial waters in good faith and on the basis of Part III of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea’s maritime transit passage provisions that stipulate that vessels are free to sail through the Strait of Hormuz and similar bodies of water on the basis of speedy and continuous navigation between an open port and the high seas. Although Tehran in custom follows the navigation practices of the Law of the Sea, Tehran is not legally bound by them. Like Washington, Tehran signed this international treaty, but never ratified it.

American-Iranian Tensions in the Persian Gulf
In recent developments, the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) is re-evaluating the use of Iranian waters at the Strait of Hormuz by foreign vessels.

Legislation is being proposed to block any foreign warships from being able to use Iranian territorial waters to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian permission; the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee is currently studying legislation which would establish an official Iranian posture. The latter would hinge upon Iranian strategic interests and national security. [1]

The Strait of Hormuz Heats Up - False Flag Possibility Increasing

Source: Corbett Report and RT

Iran has warned the United States it will take action if an American warship returns to the Persian Gulf. It left the area when Iran started its 10-day naval war games, during which they successfully test-fired a number of different missiles. But Russia’s defense ministry says that despite the latest military exercise, the Iranians don’t have the technology to make intercontinental ballistic missiles. Meanwhile France is pushing for stricter sanctions as it says it’s sure Tehran is developing nuclear weapons. It’s urged EU countries to follow the U.S. in freezing Iranian central bank assets and imposing an embargo on oil exports. Tehran has been threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz – one of the world’s most important oil routes – if the West stepped up sanctions. RT talks to James Corbett, editor of the Corbett Report website.