Iran threat to close oil strait

Sydney Morning Herald

BEIRUT: The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards says Iran might shut oil lanes in the Persian Gulf if it were attacked by the United States or Israel.

Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if there were any confrontation over Iran's nuclear program, Iran would try to hurt Western economies by targeting oil.

"Naturally every country under attack by an enemy uses all its capacity and opportunities to confront the enemy," General Jafari told the newspaper Jam-e-Jam. "Iran will definitely act to impose control on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz," through which 17 million barrels of oil pass each day.

"After this action, the oil price will rise very considerably, and this is among the factors deterring the enemies," he said. Iran abuts the northern coast of the strategic strait, and Iranian and Western analysts have said Iran could try to blockade or mine the strait in the event of a war, a move which would send oil prices much higher. But some military analysts say Iran might not be able to hold the strait, 34 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, in a confrontation with US forces.

The West and Iran are locked in a stand-off over Iran's uranium enrichment program, which Iran insists is to produce fuel for energy production but which the US suspects is the cornerstone of an eventual weapons program.

A former head of Mossad warned in an interview published yesterday that Israel had 12 months to destroy Iran's nuclear program or risk coming under nuclear attack itself. He also hinted Israel might have to act sooner if Barack Obama won the US presidential election.

Shabtai Shavit said he had no doubt Iran intended to use a nuclear weapon once it had the capability, and that Israel must conduct itself accordingly. "The time that is left … is getting shorter," he said.