Iran is becoming ever more unhinged. An IRGC commander has just been crowing about how Iran had managed to disrupt traffic in the Persian Gulf, and now it is doing the same in the Red Sea, and the Islamic Republic will, he threatens, close off the entire Mediterranean Sea, and keep it closed until Israel halts its war in Gaza. Such a threat by this Iranian commander reminds one of the exchange in Henry IV Part 1, where Glendower boasts of his superhuman powers, and has his braggadocio punctured by Hotspur:
Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, so can I, and so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?
More on this Iranian boaster can be found here: “Iran threatens Mediterranean closure over Gaza, without saying how,” i24News, December 23, 2023:
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the United States and its allies continued to commit “crimes” in Gaza, Iranian media reported on Saturday, without explaining how that would happen.
Iran backs Hamas against Israel and it accuses the United States of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are carrying out a military campaign against Iran-backed Hamas following its brutal Oct. 7 attack against southern Israeli communities.
“They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, [the Strait of] Gibraltar and other waterways,” Tasnim quoted Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, coordinating commander of the Guards, as saying.
According to this threat, the Mediterranean is going to be turned into a Mare Clausum, closed off by Iran to all ship traffic, in order to punish the Americans for not stopping Israel’s war in Gaza. So we have been warned by Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi of the IRGC.
It cannot be that Iran, with its puny navy, consisting mostly of small craft, will be able to mount a flotilla in the Mediterranean sufficient to “shut down” the opening at Gibraltar that links the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. At most, a few Iranian ships might make it all the way down the Persian Gulf, through the Strait of Hormuz, and then will have to sail all the way around the Cape of Good Hope, up the western coast of Africa, to finally reach the Strait of Gibraltar where, we are expected to believe, that tiny flotilla of Iranian ships would somehow manage to block the passage in and out of the Mediterranean. The Strait is at its narrowest 13 kilometers wide, between Point Marroquí in Spain and Point Cires in Morocco, but that is still too wide for a flotilla of Iranian ships to block the opening.
And how does the IRGC Commander Reza Naqdi think that the Iranian ships could protect themselves from being sunk by the American ships — the two full battle groups that are now in the eastern Mediterranean and that could arrive at the Strait of Gibraltar with only 2-3 days of sailing? How could a flotilla of puny Iranian vessels withstand the might of even one of the American battleships, or the airstrikes by planes from one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed off the coast of Lebanon? Does Commander Reza Naqdi understand the immense firepower of the U.S. Navy? The entire Iranian flotilla would be sunk without much trouble.
Or do the Iranians have something else in mind, possibly planning to strew the entire channel from Gibraltar to Tangier with hundreds or thousands of naval mines, thereby preventing the free passage of ships? If they were to do that, it would be considered an act of war against all the nations that routinely use the Strait of Gibraltar opening to go in and out of the Mediterranean. It’s not hard to imagine a flotilla being formed to which all the NATO members would contribute ships, which would then enter the Persian Gulf to block Iranian ships from traveling down to the Gulf of Oman, and then out to the Indian Ocean, and to blockade the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, thus preventing most of Iran’s oil from being exported to its major customers — China and India — in Asia. Would Iran want to be involved in such a sea war with many of the world’s advanced naval powers?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
How does Iran get any access to blocking the Mediterranean? One of the countries on one side of the Straits of Gibralter is Morocco, which is an ally of the Saudis, and a signatory to the Abraham Accords. On the other side is Spain, which has a Leftist govt for sure, but is still under the thumb of the EU, which will hardly want to shut off the Mediterranean to shipping from outside
On the Red Sea side, if the Saudis built a pipeline to their north-western coast near, say, Neom, & transported their oil there, they could use the Suez Canal, which has already been heavily disrupted by what the Houthis are doing. Or they could build that pipeline right to Tel Aviv: I doubt that Jordan will dare say “no”. So that accounts for Saudi oil to Europe. On the other side, they could build pipelines to Oman, from where it could be delivered to countries in Asia. The template for this had already been laid out at the G20 summit a few months ago
Similarly, countries like Bahrein & Emirates, whose shipping does depend on the Strait of Hormuz, can flow their oil/gas to Oman & let shipping containers take it from that point. Or for their European shipments, they too can run pipelines through Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv, and from there, ship it to Europe
Westman says
Gen Mohammad Reza Naqdi: “I can call the 12th Imam from the vasty deep!”
Jihadwatch: “But will he come when you do call for him?”
Qassem Soleimani: “See you soon, Reza. The Jannah rivers are dry causing the virgin factories to shut down and the servants are rebelling; calling us gluttons and perverts. Allah will beat them until their morale improves!”
bagsgroove says
Iran is not worth a single comment. It should be ignored and ostracized by the rest of the world.
Ray Jarman says
Unfortunately, Biden has provided the Mullahs with enough money that they are on the verge of building a nuclear weapon, so they are unfortunately worth a lot of words.
Rick Olsha says
STILL IT IS
AM ISRAEL CHAI !!!!!
deze MN bee says
Islamic education. The only book you need know is the holy koran. Books on Geography are h’ram.
deze MN bee says
A MedIranian Sandy Shanty Fantasy.
Full fathom five thy Fatah lies,
Of their brains are coral made.
Those are pearls that were Hamas.
Nothing of them now but suffer a sea change into something weird and strange.
Ding dong Hizbt-Allah.
Ding dong Hisbollah.
Ding dong Hezbollah.
Lisa T. says
Since the first war that America had to fight after becoming a nation was with the Muslim Barbary Pirates, who were kidnapping and enslaving sailors off of ships in the Mediterranean Sea (and the extortion they were demanding to prevent such attacks or get our people back), I don’t think we’d let this go this time either.