DTN News - IRAN DEFENSE NEWS: Iran To Equip Navy with New Flying Boats BAVAR 2 To Monitor Oil Tanker Traffic Through Straits Of Hormuz

DTN News - IRAN DEFENSE NEWS:  Iran To Equip Navy with New Flying Boats BAVAR 2 To Monitor Oil Tanker Traffic Through Straits Of Hormuz
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith 
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 31, 2012: Iran has three squadrons of new flying boats, Iranian news agencies reported. The craft, dubbed the Bavar 2, is armed with a machine gun and carries surveillance cameras, according to a report from the Iranian Student News Agency

 

 "Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the few countries which managed to design, build and use flying boats in a short time," said Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who oversaw the delivering of the aircraft at the Bandar Abbas naval facility on the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz. The delivery comes as Iran celebrates its Week of Sacred Defense, which commemorates its eight-year-long resistance to the 1980 Iraqi invasion, according to the Fars News Agency 

While there is little available information as to the performance characteristics of the flying boats, and the only known weapon system is a good old-fashioned machine gun (some reports say they can carry missiles, but certainly nothing heavy enough to sink a major warship), it would be a mistake to discount these new vessels. While they might not have much chance of ever winning a battle against Western warships or aircraft, they are well suited to a task believed to be the most likely response to Iran if war with America were to come — massed suicide attacks.

The danger is real, as shown by what happened to the USS Cole in 2000. The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, equipped with a state-of-the-art AEGIS radar suite and a variety of formidable missiles and guns, was almost brought down by a raft. While the ship was docked in port, the raft pulled up alongside and its three-man crew detonated the explosives they’d stashed on board. The billion-dollar warship had an enormous hole blown in its side and nearly went down. It had to be carried — literally carried — home on top of an enormous transport ship, so severe was the damage done by three men in a raft.

The Persian Gulf is, by modern military standards, incredibly shallow and narrow. Access to the Gulf is obtained through the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow choke point that Iran is fully capably of making a very dangerous place. Despite the Gulf’s small supply, roughly 40% of the world’s exported petroleum flows through the area. In a shooting war, while dozens of billion-dollar Western warships tried to maneuver in the shooting gallery that is the Gulf, Iran would unleash its shore-based cruise missiles (Some of which have wound up in the hands of Hezbollah, with devastating but illustrative results) and could flood the Gulf and its skies with swarms of these tiny boats.

It’s a threat the United States takes seriously. Two years ago, American warships came close to opening fire on Iranian boats that came out to challenge the warships, manuevering close by and explicitly threatening a suicide attack before veering away. Past history, such as during the Tanker War of the 1980s, has shown that small boats can approach large warships even in a hostile environment. Even though some orbiting airpower can make sure that most of them are destroyed before the surviving few reach their target, that is little consolation to those left to contend with those few.

All of this is, admittedly, hinged upon the unproven contention that these flying boats are indeed intended for suicide attacks, or at a more basic level, that Iranian pilots would be willing to carry out such attacks. To those points, I say this: Iran has announced its intention to mass produce vessels that serve virtually no conventional military purpose, that are too small and too lightly armed to be significant in a conventional battle and that will be controlled not by Iran’s Navy, but by a naval contingent of its fanatical Revolutionary Guards. And to those who question whether or not anyone would willingly sacrifice their lives to kill an enemy, recall that our experience over the last nine years, and Israel’s experience for two generations, shows that that region of the world is quite adept at producing angry, alienated young men happy to commit suicide as they wage war against the Crusaders and their Zionist masters. Recall also the Japanese kamikaze’s of the Second World War: If Japan could find 2,800 naval pilots willing to hurl their planes onto Allied ships, is there any reason to doubt that Iran can do the same?

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith 
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - IRAN NEWS: Iran Defiant As EU Imposes Oil Embargo

DTN News - IRAN NEWS: Iran Defiant As EU Imposes Oil Embargo
*Tehran accuses EU of waging "psychological warfare" as Washington threatens further measures over nuclear programme.
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Al Jazeera
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 26, 2012: Iran has accused the European Union of waging "psychological warfare" after the bloc banned imports of Iranian oil over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

The oil ban, which was approved at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, along with sanctions against Iran's central bank and other measures, came as Western powers stepped up pressure on Iran to return to negotiations amid concerns that it is moving closer to building nuclear weapons.

In Video

Al Jazeera talks to Iranian writer and journalist Hooman Majd about the EU oil embargo on Iran

"The method of threat, pressure and unfair sanctions against a nation that has a strong reason for its approach is doomed to fail," Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, told the state broadcaster.

"European Union sanctions on Iranian oil is psychological warfare," Mehmanparast said. 

"Imposing economic sanctions is illogical and unfair but will not stop our nation from obtaining its rights."

Iran's oil ministry issued a statement saying the sanctions did not come as a shock. "The oil ministry has from long ago thought about it and has come up with measures to deal with any challenges," it said, according to the IRNA news agency.

Mehmanparast said: "The European countries and those who are under American pressure, should think about their own interests. Any country that deprives itself from Iran's energy market, will soon see that it has been replaced by others."

Washington welcomes sanctions

Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said that global powers involved in negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme were still waiting for Tehran to resume talks stalled since January last year.

"The pressure of sanctions is designed to try and make sure that Iran takes seriously our request to come to the table," she said.

The EU action was welcomed in Washington where US President Barack Obama said officials would impose more sanctions to address the "serious threat presented by Iran's nuclear programme."

Washington also announced new sanctions against Iran's third largest state-owned bank, Bank Tejarat, and the Trade Capital Bank, an affiliate. Both are still accessing the international financial system.

Under Monday's embargo decision, all new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products between Iran and any of the EU's 27 member states, will be forbidden. Existing contracts have to be suspended by the end of June.

There will be a review of the embargo on May 1, a month before all oil contracts cease.

The EU is the second biggest importer of Iranian oil, after China, while the US banned imports in 1979 [Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer, reporting from the sidelines of the meeting in Brussels, said: "The reason for that is so that countries heavily dependent on Iranian oil, namely Greece, Italy and Spain, some of the most ailing members of the eurozone, can find new sources of supply, and secondly, to see what steps Iran is taking to come back to the negotiating table."

Describing the EU measures as part of "an unprecedented set of sanctions", William Hague, the British foreign minister, said: "Today's sanctions show how serious EU member states are about preventing nuclear proliferation and pressing Iran to return to the negotiating table," he said.

France, Britain and Germany said, just hours after the decision on Monday, that they were willing to negotiate with Iran if it was ready to talk seriously about its nuclear programme.

"We call on Iran's leadership immediately to suspend its sensitive nuclear activities and abide fully by its international obligations," the three countries said in a joint statement by their leaders.

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also confirmed on Monday that a high-level visit to Iran would take place from January 29-31 for talks on Tehran's nuclear activities.

Western countries believe Iran's uranium enrichment programme is part of an effort to build a nuclear bomb, but Iran says the programme is to generate electricity.

Diplomatic push

Nick Spicer reports on the meeting from Brussels

Issues of concern before Monday's meeting included the impact and costs of the ban for countries such as Greece, which relies on financial help from the EU and the International Monetary Fund to stay afloat, and received Iranian crude on preferential financing terms.

A diplomatic push is under way, officials say, to secure supplies from other producers. Saudi Arabia, the world's top producer, said this month it would increase production by about two million barrels per day.

The effort to take Iran's 2.6 million barrels of oil per day off international markets has kept global prices high, pushed down Iran's rial currency and is causing a surge in the cost of basic goods for Iranians.

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said the Iranian government believed that the EU sanctions would not really affect their oil revenues, with rising oil prices making up for a loss of revenues.

Our correspondent said the impact of the sanctions would be felt by ordinary Iranians by increasing the price of the US dollar against the Iranian rial, she said, noting that the dollar rose by about 10 cents after the EU sanctions announcement.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor of political science at Tehran University, said that EU sanctions would not "terribly affect" Iran.

"The real problem for Iran comes [from] Asia and not from Europe," Zibakalam said. "That is to say if China, South Korea, Japan ... and India move towards ... reducing their oil from Iran, that will create a serious problem for Iran."

The four Asian nations purchase about 59 per cent of Iran’s oil each year, while EU countries account for 18 per cent.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Al Jazeera
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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