Iran's Secret Plan to Contaminate the Strait of Hormuz
If there is a man who brings together all the fears of the West, it is General Mohammed Ali Jafari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Hardened by torture in the prisons of the former Shah, Jafari was among the students who stormed the US Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. He later fought in the Iran-Iraq War, and in 2007 Jafari, who has a degree in architecture, assumed command of the Revolutionary Guards, also known as the Pasdaran. The group, founded by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei to defend the Islamic regime, has since developed into a state within the state.
Today the Pasdaran control several companies and are likely a more effective military force than the regular army. Of the 21 ministers in the Iranian cabinet, 13 have completed Pasdaran training. Within this group of hardliners, Jafari, 55, is seen being particularly unyielding. In 2009, for example, he declared that Iran would fire missiles at Israel's nuclear research center in Dimona if the Israelis attacked Iran's nuclear facilities -- knowing full well that such an attack would result in several thousand deaths on both sides.
Now Jafari and his supporters are allegedly preparing new potential horrors. Western intelligence agencies have acquired a plan marked "top secret" and code-named "Murky Water." Together with Ali Fadawi, an admiral in the Pasdaran, Jafari is thought to have proposed a senseless act of sabotage: to intentionally cause an environmental catastrophe in the Strait of Hormuz.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/iranians-planning-to-create-environmental-catastrophe-in-hormuz-strait-a-861343.html
msongs
(67,441 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)On the other hand, I have no doubt the strait will be closed to traffic, if somebody attacks Iran.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)clogged up for quite a, economically davastating, while.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Oil tankers make a big mess, too.
Sam1
(498 posts)"mere collateral damage" and the primary purpose would be to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for an attack by Israel on their enrichment facilities.
Such an attack would most likely take place if the Iranians were blocked by the United States and the rest of the world from making an effective retaliation. After all such an attack would be an unprovoked act of aggression and war.