Khameini threatens to use the oil weapon if the US `makes a mistake'

Iran's real leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, head of the Council of Guardians who runs the country gave vent to a screed over Iranian TV yesterday. He said Western accusations that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons were a "sheer lie," and he threatened that any attempts to punish Iran would jeopardize the world's oil supply.

Khamenei said Iran was not a threat to any country.

``We have not threatened any neighbor," he said, calling the accusation that Iran is seeking an atom bomb ``a sheer lie."

(gee, what was that again about wiping Israel off the map? Sounded like a threat to me...and what about threatening to blackmail other countries by shutting down their oil shipments? And what about Iran's aggressive actions in Iraq?)

"If [the US] make any mistake, definitely shipment of energy from this region will be seriously jeopardized," Khamenei said.

Khamenei said the US and its allies would be unable to secure oil shipments passing out of the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to the Indian Ocean. At its narrowest point, the strait separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula is only 44 miles wide.

``You will never be able to protect the energy supply in this region," he said. ``You will not be able to do it."

Sounds almost like Mossadegh in the 1950's, doesn't he?

Oil prices surged after the Mullah's remarks, rising above $73 per barrel.

This is obviously a good cop, bad cop ploy by the Mullahs, with Ahmadinejad appearing a little more conciliatory while Khamenei threatens the infidels with a cut off of oil.

Obviously,they're seeking maximum concessions beyond what has already been offered in exchange for `peace'. The fact that Khamenei didn't totally rule out negotiations is significant, and the smartest move Iran could make would be to take the gullible kaffirs for all they canget while continuing to build their nuclear arsenal on the sly...just like they have for the last decade.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed the threat, saying Iran was too dependent on oil revenue to disrupt the flow of crude. She also put Iran on notice that the incentives offered by the West to encourage Tehran to suspend its nuclear program would not be available indefinitely, although she declined to say Iran had a firm deadline to respond.

EU assistant weasel-in-chief -uh-...the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana is due in Teheran tonight to present the incentive package offered by the West to the Mullahs. He will hold talks the next day with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Ali Larijani, the head Iran's Supreme National Security Council. Larijani, by the way, is the same guy who wrote an article bragging about how he fooled the West over Iran's nuclear program.

How high will the price go? Will the West cave? Will they allow themselves to be threatened and manipulated by the mullahs?

Stay tuned...