Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief threatens to hit US, Israel, block Persian Gulf if attacked
debkafile reports: The Guards commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari issued Tehran’s toughest and most explicit threats yet in response to recent reports of Israeli preparations to strike Iran’s nuclear installations.
This week the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullent and Chief Naval Operations chief, Adm. Gary Roughead were in Israel to discuss coordination on the Iran front.
Hinting at an American attack, Jafari said: “If there is a confrontation between us and the enemy from outside the region, definitely the scope will reach the oil issue,” said the IRGC commander to the Iranian Jam-e Jam newspaper.
After this action (of imposing controls on the Gulf waterway), the oil price will rise very considerably,” he said. The Iranian general’s words may push rocketing oil prices even past the current $143 record per barrel, energy experts calculate.
Jafari clearly differentiated between Iran’s responses to possible American and Israeli attacks. The oil weapon would be applied against the former – “and this is among the factors deterring enemies,” he said.
“Israelis know if they take military action against Iran… the abilities of the Islamic and Shiite world, especially in the region, will deliver fatal blows.” He noted that Israel was in range of Iranian missiles.
He said Iran’s “allies in the region” could also retaliate, referring to those living in “Lebanon’s heartland of South Lebanon,” without naming Hizballah.
US forces were “more vulnerable than the Israelis” because of their troops in the region. “Iran can in different ways harm American interests, even far away.”
Jafari warned Iran’s neighbors not to let their territory be used.
“If the attack takes place from the soil of another country … the country attacked has the right to respond to the enemy’s military action from where the operation started,” he said.