Iranian Warships En Route to Suez Canal, Israel Threatens Action
February 16, 2011 19:36 by Pesach BensonIsrael’s threatening to take action against a pair of Iranian warships en route to the Suez Canal tonight.
For some time, the Iranians have been interested for some time in having a naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea. Israel National News reports that the Iranian ships plan to dock in Syria for a year.
What’s at stake? Off the top of my head, Iranians off the Israeli coast will potentially:
- Support weapons smuggling to Gaza and Lebanon.
- Harass Israeli shipping lanes.
- Threaten Israel’s offshore gas reserves.
- Keep the navy pinned down enough to muscle in on the Red Sea.
- Be a source of Syrian and Hezbollah leverage over Lebanon.
- Directly assert itself against Egypt.
An all-out incident would potentially distract the Iranian public from anti-government demonstrations, as well as divert Lebanon’s attention from the Hariri tribunal’s latest developments.
Developing . . .
Andrew
12:34 am
Feb 17, 2011
Maybe there’s something else as well. Isn’t there another Gaza flotilla planned for September / October 2011. If the Iranian planned mission is for a year as I’ve seen it mentioned elsewhere do we think that they might decide to try and escort it in in order to ‘provoke’ and international incident?
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Irans Suez-Manöver und die Mainstream-Medien « Medien BackSpin
9:21 pm
Feb 17, 2011
[...] dann die Berichterstattung in den Medien. Gestern Abend ging ich davon aus, dass es schlimmer werden würde. Aber heute Morgen war klar, dass das, egal was [...]
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