Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi raised the possibility of using Iran's oil and natural gas supplies as a weapon in the international standoff and also noted Iran's strategic location at a chokepoint for a vital Persian Gulf oil route.
"If (they) politicize our nuclear case, we will use any means. We are rich in energy resources. We have control over the biggest and the most sensitive energy route of the world," Pourmohammadi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Will the Iranians really be this stupid?
Iran must import refined petroleum products. If Iran cuts off oil exports it gives us the excuse to blockade their imports.
And Iran does not actually control the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM does that. We proved we could hold the strait open in 1987-1988 during the Tanker War in the First Gulf War (Iran-Iraq War) and we can do it again.
Honestly, I hope the Iranians have failed to learn from Saddam. Iran would be smart to quietly endure the West's sanctions, count on smuggling to increasingly evade them, and exploit the media to blame even existing suffering and shortages on the sanctions. Iran has money and if it can continue to import strategic necessities, they can ride this storm out. The mullahs need only buy enough time to get their nuclear weapons, after all.
If Iran does these things without threatening the economies of others by denying even their own oil exports, they could ride out the feeble sanctions that might be placed on them.
But if Iran escalates, they inflict pain on others who will look to America to relieve and will give us the excuse we need to inflict real pain--economic or direct military action--to undermine the mullah regime before they get the protection of nuclear weapons.
