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Yesterday's article, "A Dangerous Game Israel and the U.S. are Playing with Iran", OPEDNEWS, concluded with the following, "You won't need tea leaves to figure out what may happen if Israel and the U.S. push Iran to the breaking point."
One day later it seems that is the very intention of the U.S. as these latest developments attest.
Unbeknownst to this writer, Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner was in China on Wednesday trying to "press" China (Iran's largest buyer of its oil) to reduce its import of Iranian oil (although for the time being he was rebuffed by the Chinese leaders who oppose this latest U.S. ploy and other sanctions on Iran).
Then yesterday Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (all in lockstep with U.S. policy toward Iran) have assured China, Japan and South Korea (together import 50% of Iranian oil) they would increase production to those countries IF their Iranian supplier was cut off.
Also today, the U.S. through a "secret channel of communication" has warned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that "closing the Strait of Hormuz is a red line that would provoke an American response."
The topper came when a senior Obama administration official said this morning, "We do mean to close down the Central Bank of Iran"as the largest source of their revenue."
That last point seems pretty unequivocal; completely cut off Iran's primary source of foreign revenue and bleed it economically.
But if the U.S. does that and what recourse does Iran have left? If the U.S. is hell bent on destroying the Iranian economy and its principal source of revenue, the Iranian's will likely exercise the one option it has left; block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation. That would surely cripple the world's economy and that of the U.S. And in all likelihood engulf the entire Middle East in war.
It is sheer madness on the part of the U.S. to UNNECESSARILY force Iran into a corner and expect them to just roll over. And the idea that regime change would occur in Iran that would then align itself with the Americans is pure fantasy, something conjured by the neo conservatives and their megalomaniac delusions.
It all smacks of the pre-war days with Iraq, Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction, all proven to be trumped up allegations and outright lies.
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