British and U.S. Armada Descends On the Strait of Hormuz As Israeli Strike Nears

The Strait of Hormuz is only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point  Photo: ALAMY

From The Telegraph.

Armada of British naval power massing in the Gulf as Israel prepares an Iran strike


Battleships, aircraft carriers, minesweepers and submarines from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.

Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s petroleum traded by sea.

A blockade would have a catastrophic effect on the fragile economies of Britain, Europe the United States and Japan, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas supplies from the Gulf.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most congested international waterways. It is only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point and is bordered by the Iranian coast to the north and the United Arab Emirates to the south.

In preparation for any pre-emptive or retaliatory action by Iran, warships from more than 25 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will today begin an annual 12-day exercise.



The war games are the largest ever undertaken in the region.

They will practise tactics in how to breach an Iranian blockade of the strait and the force will also undertake counter-mining drills.

The multi-national naval force in the Gulf includes three US Nimitz class carrier groups, each of which has more aircraft than the entire complement of the Iranian air force.

The carriers are supported by at least 12 battleships, including ballistic missile cruisers, frigates, destroyers and assault ships carrying thousand of US Marines and special forces.

The British component consists of four British minesweepers and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Cardigan Bay, a logistics vessel. HMS Diamond, a brand-new £1billion Type 45 destroyer, one of the most powerful ships in the British fleet, will also be operating in the region.

In addition, commanders will also simulate destroying Iranian combat jets, ships and coastal missile batteries.

In the event of war, the main threat to the multi-national force will come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy, which is expected to adopt an “access-denial” strategy in the wake of an attack, by directly targeting US warships, attacking merchant shipping and mining vital maritime chokepoints in the Persian Gulf.

Defence sources say that although Iran’s capability may not be technologically sophisticated, it could deliver a series of lethal blows against British and US ships using mini-subs, fast attack boats, mines and shore-based anti-ship missile batteries.

Next month, Iran will stage massive military manoeuvres of its own, to show that it is prepared to defend its nuclear installations against the threat of aerial bombardment.

The exercise is being showcased as the biggest air defence war game in the Islamic Republic’s history, and will be its most visible response yet to the prospect of an Israeli military strike.

Using surface-to-air missiles, unmanned drones and state-of-the-art radar, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and air force will combine to test the defences of 3,600 sensitive locations throughout the country, including oil refineries and uranium enrichment facilities.

Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya air defence base, told a conference this month that the manoeuvres would “identify vulnerabilities, try out new tactics and practise old ones”.

At the same time as the Western manoeuvres in the Gulf, the British Response Task Forces Group — which includes the carrier HMS Illustrious, equipped with Apache attack helicopters, along with the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle - will be conducting a naval exercise in the eastern Mediterranean. The task force could easily be diverted to the Gulf region via the Suez Canal within a week of being ordered to do so.

The main naval exercise comes as President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, today to discuss the Iranian crisis.

Many within the Obama administration believe that Israel will launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities before the US presidential elections, an act which would signal the failure of one of Washington’s key foreign policy objectives.

Both Downing Street and Washington hope that the show of force will demonstrate to Iran that Nato and the West will not allow President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, to develop a nuclear armoury or close Hormuz.

Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, reportedly met the Israeli prime minister and Ehud Barak, his defence secretary, two weeks ago in an attempt to avert military action against Iran.

But just last week Mr Netanyahu signalled that time for a negotiated settlement was running out when he said: “The world tells Israel 'Wait, there’s still time.’ And I say, 'Wait for what? Wait until when?’

“Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

The crisis hinges on Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, which Israel believes is designed to build an atomic weapon. Tehran has long argued that the programme is for civil use only and says it has no plans to an build a nuclear bomb, but that claim has been disputed by the West, with even the head of MI6 stating that the Islamic Republic is on course to develop atomic weapons by 2014.

The Strait of Hormuz has long been disputed territory, with the Iranians claiming control of the region and the entire Persian Gulf.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps recently boasted that “any plots of enemies” would be foiled and a heavy price exacted, adding: “We determine the rules of military conflict in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.”

But Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, warned that Iranian attempts to exercise control over the Strait of Hormuz could be met with force.

He said: “The Iranians need to understand that the United States and the international community are going to hold them directly responsible for any disruption of shipping in that region — by Iran or, for that matter, by its surrogates.”

Mr Panetta said that the United States was “fully prepared for all contingencies” and added: “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that the Iranian attempt to close down shipping in the Gulf is something that we are going to be able to defeat if they make that decision.”

That announcement was supported by Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, who added: “We are determined to work as part of the international community effort to ensure freedom of passage in the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz.”

One defence source told The Sunday Telegraph last night: “If it came to war, there would be carnage. The Iranian casualties would be huge but they would be able to inflict severe blows against the US and British.

“The Iranian Republican Guard are well versed in asymmetrical warfare and would use swarm attacks to sink or seriously damage ships. This is a conflict nobody wants, but the rhetoric from Israel is unrelenting.”

U.S. General: "US would take action against Iran closure of Hormuz"

In probably the most pointed discussion of the Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. head of the Joint Chiefs, General Martin Dempsey made no bones about the fact that the U.S. navy would clearly and decisively act to reverse that Iranian action.

From the report at The Jerusalem Post:

Iran has the ability to block the Strait of Hormuz “for a period of time,” and the US would take action to reopen it, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said Sunday.

“They’ve invested in capabilities that could, in fact, for a period of time block the Strait of Hormuz,” Dempsey said in an interview airing on the CBS “Face the Nation” program. “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that.”

Should Iran try to close Hormuz, the US “would take action and reopen” the waterway, said Dempsey, US President Barack Obama’s top military adviser.

Blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane linking the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf, would constitute a “red line” for the US, as would Iranian efforts to build a nuclear weapon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on the same program.

Continued pressure, rather than threats of air strikes, is the best way to forestall Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Panetta said.

The Iranians can't be this stupid. There's two reasons this would be suicide for them - first, this would give the West a perfect opportunity to expand operations against Iran and conduct a "nuclear clearinghouse" of Iranian nuke facilities under the guise of international provocation by the Iranians and second, the Iranians have ZERO support in closing the Strait of Hormuz. Sure, the Russians might clamor a bit but they would back down quickly especially if the coalition to open the Strait was large.

But at the same time, what the Iranians need right now is time - they desperately need time to finish their nuclear warhead work and get some testing done of nuclear missiles and one way to buy more time is to get the West occupied with a different kind of threat.

'US would take action against Iran closure of Hormuz'


Iran has the ability to block the Strait of Hormuz “for a period of time,” and the US would take action to reopen it, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said Sunday.

“They’ve invested in capabilities that could, in fact, for a period of time block the Strait of Hormuz,” Dempsey said in an interview airing on the CBS “Face the Nation” program. “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that.”

Should Iran try to close Hormuz, the US “would take action and reopen” the waterway, said Dempsey, US President Barack Obama’s top military adviser.

Blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane linking the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf, would constitute a “red line” for the US, as would Iranian efforts to build a nuclear weapon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on the same program.

Continued pressure, rather than threats of air strikes, is the best way to forestall Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Panetta said.

Panetta: Applying pressure on Iran is the responsible course of action

While the US shouldn’t “take any option off the table,“ Panetta said “the responsible thing to do right now is to keep putting diplomatic and economic pressure on them to force them to do the right thing and to make sure that they do not make the decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon.”

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said January 1 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would use air strikes against Iran unless the country dismantled its nuclear program or allowed inspectors to verify that the work isn’t aimed at making a weapon.

Dempsey suggested that curbing Iran’s nuclear work by bombing its facilities would be difficult.

“I’d rather not discuss the degree of difficulty and in any way encourage them to read anything into that,” Dempsey said. “My responsibility is to encourage the right degree of planning, to understand the risks associated with any kind of military option.”

US plans in case of Israeli strike

Should Israel decide to undertake a unilateral military strike against Iran, the US priority would be protecting American troops in the region, Panetta said.

Dempsey and Panetta sought on CBS to provide assurances that the new US military strategy, announced last week, won’t limit the US ability to stop aggressors.

“What we’re looking to do here is not constrain ourselves to a two-war construct, but rather build a force that has the kind of agility” needed to adapt to any scenario, Dempsey said. Previous US war planning called for preparing to fight two conventional wars simultaneously.

The plan was driven by the need to cut almost $490 billion from projected Pentagon spending through 2021, including about $261 billion through 2017. Panetta said last week the details won’t be released until the Pentagon presents its 2013 budget request to Congress by early February.

Did the Iranians Attack a Japanese Ship In the Strait of Hormuz?

A lot of unanswered questions right now are swirling around concrete evidence that a Japanese tanker that was maneuvering through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf was damaged by what is being described by the crew as an "explosion."

From the article at Breitbart:

A Japanese shipping line raised alarm Wednesday that one of its supertankers was damaged by an explosion in a possible attack in the Persian Gulf, but authorities on both sides of the tense waterway denied that any strike occurred.
Details of what happened as the hulking M. Star tanker steered its way through the strategically sensitive Strait of Hormuz remain murky. The U.S. Navy fleet that patrols the region acknowledged reports of an explosion aboard the ship but said the cause of the blast is unclear.

Mitsui said the explosion seemed to be caused by "an attack from external sources" while the tanker passed through Omani waters in the western part of the vital waterway, a narrow chokepoint between Oman and Iran at the Gulf's mouth.

"We believe it's highly likely an attack," Mitsui spokeswoman Eiko Mizuno said. "There is nothing that can explode in that part of the vessel."

Now pardon my rush to judgement against the Iranians but at the Strait of Hormuz, on one side you have Iran and on the other you have Oman and the United Arab Emirates - last time I checked, Oman and the UAE were not exactly involved in terrorism or global jihad nor have they threatened half the world with destruction. At the same time, last time I checked, Somali pirates aren't exactly zipping around in the Persian Gulf. So that leaves us with Iran.

So what happened? Well, I would guess that the possibilities would be a mine that had been laid by the Iranians or a small craft did a U.S.S. Cole number on the Japanese ship. I would guess that if the Iranians had actually rammed the ship with a small craft loaded with explosives there would be some debris evidence of that but at the same time, this happened at midnight and who knows how far the Japanese vessel continued on until stopping to check things out. At the same time, I have no way of know what part of the Strait they were in but a mine is a possibility but by the looks of the damage to the ship in the photo supplies here, the damage seems to be well above the water line.

Obviously, I'm no expert on this kind of thing but I do feel I know the Iranians pretty well and I am convinced they were behind this, whatever it was. Hopefully, further examination of this vessel will turn up some clues.

Supertanker damage raises alarm in Persian Gulf


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A Japanese shipping line raised alarm Wednesday that one of its supertankers was damaged by an explosion in a possible attack in the Persian Gulf, but authorities on both sides of the tense waterway denied that any strike occurred.
Details of what happened as the hulking M. Star tanker steered its way through the strategically sensitive Strait of Hormuz remain murky. The U.S. Navy fleet that patrols the region acknowledged reports of an explosion aboard the ship but said the cause of the blast is unclear.

Local officials cited natural causes, such as an unusually strong wave that slammed into the side of the ship.

A photo released by the Emirates state news agency WAM after the tanker arrived in Fujairah port for inspections showed a large, square-shaped dent beginning near the waterline on the rear starboard side of the ship's hull.

The incident happened shortly after midnight as the M. Star entered the strait, heading out of the Gulf, Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said.

Mitsui said the explosion seemed to be caused by "an attack from external sources" while the tanker passed through Omani waters in the western part of the vital waterway, a narrow chokepoint between Oman and Iran at the Gulf's mouth.

"We believe it's highly likely an attack," Mitsui spokeswoman Eiko Mizuno said. "There is nothing that can explode in that part of the vessel."

One of the ship's 31 crew members noticed a flash of light right before the explosion, she said, suggesting something may have struck the vessel. The explosion occurred at the back of the tanker, near an area where lifeboats are stored, causing cuts to a crew member who was struck with broken glass.

If the tanker was attacked, it would be a rare assault on a merchant ship in the Gulf or at the Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for about 40 percent of oil shipped by tankers worldwide.

Al-Qaida has in the past carried out attacks on oil infrastructure on land in nearby Saudi Arabia, as well as a 2002 suicide bombing against a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

Yuki Shimoda, an official at Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said the ministry did not immediately suspect an attack, but added that the possibility cannot be ruled out.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, loaded with 270,000 tons of oil, was heading from the petroleum port of Das Island in the United Arab Emirates to the Japanese port of Chiba outside Tokyo, the ministry said. After the blast, the tanker made its way the Emirati port of Fujairah under its own power, where it dropped anchor late Wednesday.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping lane for crude oil, natural gas and other goods headed out of the Persian Gulf. It is far from areas where Somali pirates typically prey on slow-moving ships, though smugglers are known to operate in the area between Iran and an enclave of Oman on the other side of the strait.

The Japanese ministry said none of the country's ships has been attacked by pirates in the area.

Iran has in the past threatened to close the strait if the United States attacks it over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, though there were no immediate signs of Iranian involvement.

The Emirates' official state news agency WAM quoted Fujairah port director Musa Murad as saying the tanker sustained damage when it was hit by a large wave caused by a tremor. WAM separately quoted an "official source" who ruled out the possibility the tanker had been attacked.

Ataollah Sadr, an Iranian shipping official, also said the damage was likely caused as a result of an earthquake and rejected the possibility of a terrorist attack, according to Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it has not had any reports of recent earthquakes in the area, which is prone to seismic activity. Mizuno said the shipping company had no reason to believe a large wave or earthquake was to blame.

Omani officials couldn't immediately be reached.

The U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols the region, said it is investigating the explosion but does not know what caused it. Initial reports from the ship's owner say one lifeboat was blown off the ship, and some starboard hatches were damaged, according to the Navy. It said it offered to assist the tanker after the explosion but was told no help was needed.