Iran has a long history (since 1979, really) of having its mouth write checks its fourth point of contact can't cash. Never has that been more egregious than now, when Operation Epic Fury has crushed their army and air force and reduced their navy to a series of fish habitats. On Thursday, this tendency of Iran was on display yet again, as a statement purporting to be from the new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was read on state television.
Iran’s supreme leader vowed Thursday in a defiant tone to protect the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and missile capabilities, which U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to curtail through airstrikes and as part of a wider deal to cement the war’s shaky ceasefire.
In a statement read by a state television anchor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters” and that a “new chapter” was being written in the region’s history. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over as supreme leader following the killing of his father in the war’s opening airstrikes.
That last part is key; we have no real evidence that it's really Khamenei the Younger issuing these statements. Yes, we know he was badly injured in the attack that reduced his father, the old Supreme Leader, to ambient temperature. Yes, we have been told that those injuries are disfiguring and that he's recovering. But honestly, put some bandages on this guy, sit him up in the hospital bed, and give him today's London Times to hold up for the camera. Iran's refusal to provide proof of life for this guy went past suspicious some time ago.
Here's where Iran's saber-rattling impotence is revealed:
His remarks come as Iran’s economy is reeling and its oil industry is being squeezed by a U.S. Navy blockade halting its tankers from getting out to sea. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil is transported. On Thursday, the global benchmark for oil, Brent crude, traded as high as $126 a barrel.
OK, Iran has no chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has a chokehold on Iranian shipping and Iranian ports, and we saw further evidence of that earlier on Thursday, as Iranian ships were found to have been trying to spoof navigation signals, but they got busted, and evidence indicates now that the Iranian oil carriers are still bottled up in the Persian Gulf.
As I've said for some time now, the United States still holds the leverage here. Iran's got nothing, nothing but a lot of super-heated gaseous emissions.
Read More: Nice Try: Iran’s $800M Oil Smuggling Scheme Using Fake Iraqi Tankers Falls Apart
Now, oil prices are still exploring the upper end of the historic range, and that's not good for anyone. The incentive for the Trump administration is to wrap this thing up, and fast, so gas prices can come down well before the midterm elections in November.
Of the supposed Ayatollah's statements on Thursday, though, this one may be the most giggle-inducing:
“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities — from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities — as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said.
It's a safe bet that at least 89,999,999 of those proud and honorable Iranians wish that the mullahs and their minions would just shut up and go away, so they could have their country back.
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