Iranian War Games: Strait of Hormuz
In the ever-growing Middle East tension surrounding Iran, a high-ranking Iranian official has said that Iran's military will stage a war game by sealing off the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz happens to be the world's most important oil transport channel. This move is yet another attempt by Iran to show the world that they are fully capable of disrupting the world's oil supply.
On Monday, Sarvari, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security Committee, said in a statement reported by Reuters: “Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.”
On January 6, 2008, three U.S. Navy vessels took evasive actions when five Iranian boats buzzed the ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf. The incident lasted 15 to 20 minutes. The Navy ships were traveling into the Persian Gulf when the Iranian boats approached them. “Small, Iranian boats made some aggressive maneuvers against our vessels and indicated some hostile intent,” according to Pentagon spokesperson, Bryan Whitman.
More recently, in September 2011, Iran's navy reportedly detailed plans to move naval vessels out of the Persian Gulf and into the Atlantic Ocean, “near maritime borders of the United States.”
The building tension in Iran has ratcheted up a notch after a U.S. spy drone recently fell from the sky onto Iranian soil. Before that, international pressure by world bodies increased on Iran to cease its nuclear program. Iran insists that nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Almost 15.5 million barrels of oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz each day. That is almost one-sixth of global consumption, according to Bloomberg's research into Department of Energy records.
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