Thursday, April 9, 2015

Iran deploys so called 34th Fleet off the coast of Yemen

(Tehran) The mad mullahs really are trying to increase the price of crude in which to replenish their depleted coffers, so seeing as how their arming and supporting the Shia Houthis to take physical control of the west of the country (funny enough, virtually the same area as what used to be North Yemen)


has failed (worryingly for the world) to increase the price of crude, it appears that they have hit on the plan to cause an international incident by sending their impressive 34th Fleet to sit off the coast of Yemen. Here is how the mouthpiece of Iran (Press TV) mentions the story:


So the 34th Fleet consists of 1 so called destroyer and a support vessel. The destroyer is actually the Alvand-class frigate, the Aiborz, sold to Iran by the UK in 1971 along with 3 others, of which the Americans sank the Sahand during the Operation Preying Mantis which was a payback for the Iranian mining of the gulf of Hormuz in 1988.

Aiborz

The Iranians have form in bigging up their military capability, which is why they have no problem calling 1,100 tonne light frigate a destroyer, and when supported by a supply ship, it becomes the 34th fleet. In contrast, HMS Dragon an air defence destroyer comes in at 8,000 tonnes. In the US, the Arleigh Burke–class destroyer (of which the US has 62) comes in between 9,000 to 10,000 tonnes.


So the question to be asked is: Why is Iran sending in such a paltry naval warship off to a war zone? A war zone where the much more heavily armed Sunni nations can swat this so called destroyer without batting an eye lid. Could it be to become the casualty of an international incident and thus allow it at a very low cost to see the price of crude oil go through the roof? Which, due to the state of Iran's finances, would be very welcome indeed.