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The
latest Stratfor naval update map shows that the USS John C. Stennis has now
arrived in the waters just outside Iran, joining the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Although there were already two aircraft carriers in the region prior to
Stennis’ arrival, the USS Enterprise left for a scheduled port visit in Naples,
Italy.
“In
a week or so, shore leave will be over and CVN will be back to join everyone
else, at which point the US will finally have three aircraft carriers just off
the Iranian coastline ready to rumble,” reports Zero Hedge.
In
response to this build-up, along with exercises involving the US, UK and Middle
Eastern countries focused around clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran
has launched a Tareq-901 submarine and a Sahand destroyer into the Gulf from
the port of Bandar Abbas.
“At
the same time, as stated on (Ayatollah) Khamenei’s official website, the
Supreme Leader was visiting the northern coastal city of Nowshahr to observe
naval cadets practice planting mines, rescuing hijacked ships, destroying enemy
ships, and rapid deployment via helicopters,” reports OilPrice.com.
Earlier
this week, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Iran may also be planning
to disrupt shipping lanes in the Strait, through which around 40 per cent of
the world’s oil passes, by intentionally causing a massive oil spill.
“The
goal of the plan seems to be that of contaminating the strait so as to
temporarily close the important shipping route for international oil tankers,
thereby “punishing” the Arab countries that are hostile to Iran and forcing the
West to join Iran in a large-scale cleanup operation — one that might require
the temporary suspension of sanctions against Tehran,” states the report.
Iran
later denied the claims, stating they illustrated how, “Western nations have
been brought low and have resorted to making any allegation against us.”
It
seems abundantly clear that if there is to be an “October surprise” which will
decide the US presidential election one way or the other, it will involve Iran
and it will happen within the next two weeks.
The
likelihood of such an incident involving Iran was raised by an ABC News piece
earlier this month which speculated that something could “occur in the days
before the election” to swing the outcome and that it would probably involve
Iran in one way or another, be it an attack on US interests or Obama or Romney
cutting a deal with Tehran.
Last
month, lobbyist Patrick Clawson stoked controversy when he urged the United
States to stage or provoke an attack in order to create a manufactured casus
belli for striking Iran.
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