WarSclerotic

Fars News Agency :: Commander Underlines Iran’s Strategic Supremacy over Europe.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Sunday reiterated Iran’s control over the world’s energy supplies, warning that Iran has the power to cut energy supplies to the Green Continent whenever needed, specially in the cold season.

“Iran sits on 50% of the world’s energy (supplies) and if it wants, Europe will spend the winter in the chill,” IRGC Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, addressing Basij (volunteer) forces in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman.

Iran is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of crude oil and sits on 16 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves – second in the world only to Russia.

The US-led West is at odds with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, which it says is only aimed at producing electricity but the West alleges to be aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

Iran, which borders the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz through which around 40 percent of the world’s oil supply crosses, has not ruled out blocking the passage in case of an attack.

Speculation that Israel could also bomb Iran mounted after a big Israeli air drill in June. In the first week of June, 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters reportedly took part in an exercise over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, which was interpreted as a dress rehearsal for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

Senior Iranian commanders in reaction to Israel’s recent war rhetoric warned Tel Aviv of Iran’s devastating response to any possible military action against the country.

Meantime, Iran’s move to cut energy supplies to Europe can cause devastating losses for the Europe given the fact that Russia, main supplier of Europe’s energy needs has pursued the strategic goal of dominating natural gas supplies to Europe and the pipelines that deliver them.

Russia’s pricing dispute with Ukraine last year disrupted the flow of natural gas, leaving hundreds of thousands in Eastern Europe shivering in the deep winter cold.

This entry was posted on February 28, 2010 at 5:09 PM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.