Iran's Missile Capability Growing Fast

A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Iran's missile capability has grown so powerful that a partial knowledge of country's missile capability has discouraged Washington from attacking Iran. "Iran's missile capability has grown much in comparison with the past, and what the US knows of Iran's capability is much smaller than what it does not know," Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy General Ali Fadavi told reporters on the sidelines of the 18th annual meeting of the IRGCN on Saturday. He said the US economic sanctions against Iran prove that Washington and its western allies have realized that military action against Iran would be useless. "The fact that the US is using all its power for imposing oil and economic sanctions on Iran derives from the fact that they know they won't obtain any result through military options against the Islamic Republic of Iran," General Fadavi added. He said the fruitless wars conducted by the US and Israel in the last few years have discouraged both Washington and Tel Aviv from waging an offensive on Iran. "The United States and Israel have experienced bitter experiences of war in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq and the like in the last few years," he said. He said the US couldn't defeat Iran in the Persian Gulf years ago when it was due to protect the Iraq-bound cargo ships during the Iraqi imposed war (1980-1988), and Washington and its allies are well aware that Iran's military capabilities have grown drastically since then. "Our 39 retaliatory operations were conducted successfully; in all these operations, the US warships (responsible for protecting the Iraq-bound cargo ships) started their voyage to reach the (Iraq-bound) ships sooner than us, but they could never prevent even a single operation of ours," the IRGC Navy commander said. Iran's naval power has even been acknowledged by foes. In a Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy also said that in the two decades since the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the IRGC has excelled in naval capabilities and is able to wage unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces. According to the report, Iran's Navy has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is effectively in control of the world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz. The study says that if Washington takes military action against the Islamic Republic, the scale of Iran's response would likely be proportional to the scale of the damage inflicted on Iranian assets. The Islamic Republic's top military officials have repeatedly warned that in case of an attack by either the US or Israel, the country would target 32 American bases in the Middle East and close the strategic Strait of Hormuz. An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway. A recent study by a fellow at Harvard's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Caitlin Talmadge, warned that the IRGC Navy could use mines as well as missiles to block the strait, and that "it could take many weeks, even months, to restore the full flow of commerce, and more time still for the oil markets to be convinced that stability had returned".

Int'l Union of Unified Ummah Condemns Massacre of Myanmar Muslims

The International Union of Unified Ummah deplored the massacre of Myanmar Muslims in their country and in other parts of the region, and called on international bodies to show swift reaction to the crimes committed against them. "Bad news are heard about Muslim genocide in Myanmar," a statement by the Union said on Saturday, adding that millions of Muslims who are considered as a minority in their country have faced different problems by Myanmar's government. The statement also condemned the recent massacre of thousands of Myanmar Muslims by the followers of Buddhism in front of the police forces, and said that such crimes are committed in a situation that the country's government prevents the presence of foreign reporters and representatives of international bodies. The statement called on the Iranian foreign ministry to pressure international bodies and the so-called advocates of human rights to safeguard and save the lives of the oppressed and deprived Muslims of Myanmar. The statement came as Myanmar's President Thein Sein said that Myanmar Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations. The former junta general said on Thursday that the "only solution" was to send nearly a million Myanmar Muslims - one of the world's most persecuted minorities - to refugee camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "We will send them away if any third country would accept them," he added. "This is what we are thinking is the solution to the issue." The UN refugee agency has snubbed the idea of setting up refugee camps to accommodate the Muslims. The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Muslims stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services. Over the past two years, waves of ethnic Muslims have attempted to flee by boats in the face of systematic oppression by the Myanmar government. The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize them. They say the Muslims are not native and classify them as illegal migrants, although they have lived in Myanmar for generations.

WORLD WAR 3: 100 Iranian MPs call for blocking Hormuz Strait

TEHRAN, July 2 (MNA) – The Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has put forward a proposal to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz to prevent the passage of tankers that carry oil for the countries that have imposed sanctions on Iran, an Iranian MP announced on Sunday. Speaking to the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency, MP Ebrahim Aqa-Mohammadi said that the proposal had been signed by 100 MPs as of Sunday. The measure would be a response to the European Union’s oil embargo on Iran that took effect on July 1 and a new U.S. law that penalizes countries that do business with the Central Bank of Iran by denying their banks access to the United States market. The law came into force on June 28. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most strategic shipping channels. It connects the vast majority of the world's countries with the crude oil that fuels their economies. At its narrowest point, the strait is 21 miles wide, with a two-mile shipping lane on either side. On average, 14 supertankers sail through the strait every day. MP Arsalan Fat’hipour said on Sunday that if Iran is unfairly targeted, it will not allow “even one drop of oil” to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Fars News Agency, he also played down the effects of sanctions against Iran and said, “We have been sanctioned for 33 years and have faced worse conditions than this, but nothing happened.”