An Iranian oil rig that cost $40 million and weighs more than 4 million pounds sank in the Persian Gulf last week, news.com.au reports.
Workers rushed to get off the rig—which belongs to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and took 30 months to build—as it disappeared into Iran’s South Pars gas field in about 10 seconds.
Local media reported that none of the workers were injured, according to news.com.au. >> Read More
Iran claimed on Tuesday that it has captured an unmanned US drone after the aircraft entered Iranian airspace, underscoring the increasing tensions between the two countries.
Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards marine forces, told state media on Tuesday that the drone, which was “patrolling Persian Gulf in recent days to conduct reconnaissance operations and collect information was captured and brought down immediately . . . after it had entered Iran’s territory”.
He told the semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, that the drone was a ScanEagle, which are usually launched from large warships. Iran’s state television said the US had a “network of drones” in the Gulf region.
A US navy spokesman told the Associated Press that there were no US drones missing in the Middle East. >> Read More
Iran has test-fired four missiles in the Persian Gulf, according to an Iranian news agency.
The report quoted General Ali Fadavi of the Revolutionary Guard as saying the missiles were fired simultaneously at a sea target as large as a warship and sank it within 50 seconds.
Fadavi “stressed Iran’s missile capability, and noted that Iran’s missile systems can reach the entire Persian Gulf coastline and beyond where the US bases are,” according to Fars.
This is an escalation of Iran’s counter drills in the Gulf, held at the same time as international naval exercises.
Commander of the navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reiterated Saturday the strategic Strait of Hormuz is in full control of Iranian military forces.
“Iran fully controls the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.. . If they (the United States and Israel) take any hostile action against Iran, they will have to pay greatly for it,” Ali Fadavi was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.
Iran is able to fully close the Strait of Hormuz, he emphasized, saying that nothing will happen as long as the security and interests of Iran are not endangered, but if the United States seeks to “damage” the security of the region, all parties will suffer alike.
“We determine the rules of military conflict in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, adding that Iran has greatly improved and upgraded its missile power.
Any conflict in the Persian Gulf will indicate the “stupidity” of Western troops, he said.
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program have been mounting recently after three rounds of nuclear talks held earlier this year between Tehran and six world powers, namely the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, failed to bear concrete results. >> Read More
Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran does not plan to block the Strait of Hormuz, the slender oil shipping channel out of the Persian Gulf, for now, but meantime warned that it would choke off the world oil lifeline if it is denied access to the Persian Gulf.
“Probably those who have suggested this idea have in mind that if Iran is denied access to the Persian Gulf for whatever reason … then Iran will probably react appropriately,” Salehi said in reference to the recent calls by several Iranian lawmakers on government officials to close the Strait of Hormuz.
“But I don’t think such a time will ever come,” he added.
Salehi’s remarks came as Iranian lawmakers warned once again last week that the country would shut the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf if sanctions against the Islamic Republic increase.
Last week, the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament drafted a bill requiring the government to stop all oil tankers shipping oil for those countries which support the US and EU sanctions against Iran’s oil sales.
Then on Sunday, a senior Iranian legislator announced that the parliament plans to invite Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili as well as a number of foreign ministry and military officials to confer on a draft bill on closing the Strait of Hormuz to those tankers shipping crude to the countries that support sanctions against Iran. >> Read More
Iran’s Parliament has drafted a bill calling for tankers to be stopped from shipping crude through the Strait of Hormuz to countries that support sanctions, a member said last Monday, reported Reuters.
However, bills introduced in the Iranian parliament are unlikely to get far unless sanctioned by the leadership.
”There is a bill prepared in the National Security and Foreign Policy committee of Parliament that stresses the blocking of oil tanker traffic carrying oil to countries that have sanctioned Iran,” Iranian MP Ibrahim Agha-Mohammadi said, according to Iran’s parliamentary news agency. “This bill has been developed as an answer to the European Union’s oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Agha-Mohammadi said that 100 of Tehran’s 290 members of parliament had signed the bill as of last Sunday, according to Reuters.
However, no details were given on how Iran would verify the destination of every ship passing out of the Persian Gulf, which is under scrutiny by the US Navy.
Iranian threats to block the waterway, through which about 17 mill barrels of oil passed per day in 2011, have grown in the past year as US and European sanctions aimed at starving Tehran of funds for its nuclear programme have tightened.
If the bill is approved by Parliament, it would then have to be approved by the 12-member Council of Guardians, made up of Muslim clerics and lawyers selected by the supreme leader, which can veto any bill.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has already taken precautionary steps against the possibility of Iran closing Hormuz, including the reopening of an old pipeline built by Iraq to bypass the strait and export more crude via the Red Sea terminals.
The US has also sent four minesweepers to the Gulf to bolster its Fifth Fleet after the Iranian military also recently renewed threats to block Hormuz, Reuters reported.
The United States has said that Iran is required under their international obligations to keep the Straits of Hormuz open, and called upon Tehran to fulfill them. 120 Iranian lawmakers have signed on to a draft bill calling for the strategic Strait of Hormuz to be closed to oil tankers headed to Europe in retaliation for the EU embargo. Reacting to this move during a daily press briefing on Tuesday, US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland reiterated the US stand that the Straits of Hormuz is an international waterway and it needs to stay open. “We’ve seen these threats from Iran again and again. As per international law, longstanding international practice, the Straits of Hormuz is an international strait. As such, vessels of all states enjoy transit passage rights through the straits. These rights apply to warships as well as merchant ships and vessels,” she told reporters, making clear that “Any attempt by Iran to close the strait or to require vessels to obtain Iranian consent would be inconsistent with international law and not recognized by the United States.” To a question, “what will be the U.S. reaction” to a possible blockade, Nuland replied “we have over years and decades made clear that we intend to do what is necessary to maintain the openness of the straits.” In January this year, Iran warned that it would block the Strait of Hormuz in response to possible security threats from the United States. Pentagon retorted by saying that the U.S. military was now “fully prepared” to deal with any Iranian effort to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Gulf avenue for international oil shipments. The U.S. 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, and all American ships to return to their base must go through the Strait of Hormuz, the bottleneck between Oman and Iran. The U.S. Defense Department had made it clear that its warships would continue to remain in the Persian Gulf at all cost despite the Iranian threat. The Strait of Hormuz, located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, links the oil-producing Gulf countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the Indian Ocean. About 40 percent of the world’s tanker-borne oil passes through the waterway. Tensions raised by Iran over the safe passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and the test-firing of missiles are enough to raise crude oil prices. |
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards test fired several ballistic missiles on Tuesday, including a long-range variety meant to dissuade Israel and the U.S. from attacking the Islamic Republic, local media reported.
The Guards’ acting commander told state TV that the tests, aimed at mock enemy bases in a war game exercise, were a response to Israel’s and Washington’s refusal to rule out military strikes to stop Iran’s nuclear program.
“It is a response to the political impoliteness of those who talk about all options being on the table,” Gen. Hossein Salami said. >> Read More
Iran announced this week that it’s made its first oil discovery in the Caspian Sea in more than 100 years. The semiofficial Fars News Agency reports the find, in ultradeep waters, may hold the equivalent of 7 percent of the country’s known national reserves. Iran has touted its ability to continue with domestic energy production, notably in the South Pars natural gas field in the Persian Gulf, despite international sanctions targeting its energy sector. In the Caspian, however, Iran’s recent claims may put it at odds with its neighbours over their rights in disputed territorial waters.
Iranian officials reported the discovery of an oil field containing as much as 10 billion barrels of crude oil in the waters of the Caspian Sea. The find was reported at a depth of around 1.5 miles, however, and Iran seemingly has little experience with deepwater development. With Iran facing a diminishing consumer base because of European sanctions, the find, if correct, could be used as political capital by Tehran should global oil supplies constrict when international sanctions take hold later this summer. Iran insists the world needs its oil and 10 billion barrels of new oil in its pocket certainly makes for attractive bargaining.
The trouble, apart from the lack of experience in deep waters, is that the field could be situated in Azeri waters. Territorial boundaries in the Caspian Sea were never settled after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s. More than twenty years on, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are at odds over maritime patrols near a Caspian field. A similar move by the Iranians into the waters to its north could excite regional tensions even further. >> Read More
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