Iranian Revolutionary Guards Takes Charge of Straight of Hormuz

Lost in the economic and political news are some major warning signs coming out of Iran. Iranian President Ahmadinejad said today that any talk of suspending his nuclear program is off the table.

Iran's nuclear weapons program is about more than destroying the "Zionist Entity." Iran wants to be a super power on the scale of the United States. Iraq acts like a super power feeding little satellite countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, Senegal, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Nothing makes Iran happier than tweaking at the United States because its President Aym-a-shithead feels that once it develops nuclear weapons Iran will be on par with the evil Satan, the USA.

The other disturbing news is that the Iranian Elite forces have taken charge of the Strait of Hormuz. If they close the Strait, they control 30% of the world's Oil Supply. Just another reason for Congress to get off their arses and let the United States exploit its own Oil Reserves:

Revolutionary Guards take charge of Hormuz

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran announced Tuesday that it has put the elite Revolutionary Guards in charge of defending the country’s territorial Persian Gulf waters in what appeared to be a hardening of its stance in the vital oil route.

U.S. commanders in the Gulf have in the past said they find Guards ships more confrontational than the regular Iranian navy, which until the new order was responsible for Iranian defenses in the gulf.

Iran has warned repeatedly that it will close the narrow Hormuz Strait at the mouth of the gulf if the United States or Israel attacks it amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear program. Around 40 percent of the world’s oil passes through Hormuz. Last winter, Iranian and U.S. ships patrolling the gulf had a several small confrontations in Hormuz that the Americans blamed on provocations by Guards ships.

The Guards corps, which has land, navy and air components, is considered better equipped than the normal military and more ideologically fervent, tasked with protecting Iran’s Islamic government, dominated by hard-line clerics. No reason was given for the move, but it could be aimed at showing Iran is serious in its warnings of retaliation for any attack.

Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the top military adviser of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced that “responsibility to defend the Persian Gulf” has been delegated to the Guards’ navy, while the regular navy would operate in the Oman Sea, outside the gulf and in the landlocked Caspian Sea.

Safavi, who was the Guards head until earlier this year, warned that all vessels in the gulf are within the range of Iranian missiles.

“No warship can pass through the waterway without being in our range,” he said, quoted by the state news agency IRNA. “Our armed forces, possessed with defensive weapons including missiles ... and torpedoes, are able to control the strait of Hormuz.”

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet, said the move will not significantly affect Navy patrols in the gulf. The fleet’s task is to keep the Hormuz Strait open to ensure “free flow of trade and commerce,” he said.

“We are not interested in a confrontation in the gulf,” Christensen said. He said the Navy expects “responsible and professional maritime behavior” from all vessels, including the Revolutionary Guards.

Safavi repeated warnings that Iran would retaliate against U.S. bases in the Gulf if Israel launches a strike against Iran.

If Israel attacks, U.S. forces in the region “will be put in serious danger. Definitely, the Americans don’t want to get involved in a fourth front after conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Georgia.”

Israel, which is believed to possess a nuclear arsenal, has warned it would attack Iran to prevent the Persian state from acquiring nuclear weapons. The U.S. says it seeking a diplomatic solution, but has not ruled out military action. Iran denies it intends to develop nuclear weapons.

The Guards’ vessels stepped up patrols in Hormuz last year during a period when the U.S. had increased its naval strength in the gulf, making a show of strength over Iran’s defiance of U.N. resolutions on its nuclear program. The Guards say their navy vessels ask ships to identify themselves before entering the gulf.