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Exercise: massive concentration of American naval, air and marine might to the Persian Gulf
US officials said the exercise starting Oct. 31 will practice interdicting ships carrying weapons of mass destruction and missiles.DEBKAfiles military sources report: US naval, air and marine forces are massing in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and eastern Mediterranean opposite Lebanon and Syria. The big USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group arrives by Oct. 21. Facing these units are Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval, air and marine units together with the Iranian armed forces on full war preparedness. The forthcoming DEBKA-Net-Weekly discusses this menacing maneuver at length in its coming issue out on Friday. To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE . The US announcement came as the US and other powers discussed sanctions on North Korea, including searching its ships following Mondays nuclear test. It followed shortly after they also agreed on a Security Council session next week to impose sanctions on Iran. The US spokesman said the exercise, in which Bahrain, Kuwait, France, Britain, Canada and others will take part, will demonstrate our resolve and readiness to act against nuclear proliferation. South Korea will be an observer. Clearly the Bush administration has more forceful repercussions in mind for Iran than diplomacy. Iran will no doubt respond to the demonstrative exercise, the massing of US forces around its shores and the threat of UN sanctions by a counter-stroke that raises tensions in the region and involves Iraq and/or the countries on Israels border Lebanon and Syria. This sounds suspiciously like we are presenting Iran with a "golden opportunity". Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-10-13 |
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