IRAN promoting "GREATER IRAN" Caliphate

The first part of the article is a prediction for
February 2011 (next year)

The second part provides the utterings of an Islamic Iran Mullah, last week, who wants to make Iran the most  powerful State in the MIddle East. (WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS in their arsenal).

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) attacked vital Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure today in a move analysts fear will escalate the growing conflict in the Persian Gulf and further deepen the worldwide oil crisis.

Several Iranian surface-to-surface missiles struck the Saudi Arabian oil processing facility at Abqaiq at approximately 3:30 a.m. Iranian authorities claimed the strike was in retaliation for Saudi Arabia granting the Israeli Air Force (IAF) permission to cross through its airspace en route to bombing Iranian nuclear facilities two weeks ago.

“They committed an act of war in aiding the Zionist attack and we have responded,” said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Israeli officials report that 11 civilians were killed and 42 injured after four more Iranian Shahab-3 missiles struck southern Israel in the hours following the attack on Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, more details have emerged about the Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites that sparked the widening regional conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that he ordered the IAF strike against facilities in Arak, Natanz and Isfahan, claiming that “sanctions have proven ineffective and an Iranian bomb was within reach. We cannot wait for the international community to deal with this rogue nuclear state through diplomatic channels. Israel must defend herself.” It remains unclear whether President Obama supported the Israeli strike, or if the country acted without express US support.

Today’s missile strikes come one week after Mr. Ahmadinejad announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, fulfilling a long-held Iranian promise to employ oil as a weapon if attacked.

In response to what he called “American collusion with Israeli aggression,” Mr. Ahmadinejad ordered the IRGC to enforce a blockade of the narrow waterway where 90 percent of Gulf oil shipments must pass within 12 miles of the Persian coast.

On the command of US Naval authorities, a Kuwaiti oil tanker, the Tulkarem, attempted to break the blockade on February 22. Shortly after the ship entered the Strait, an IRGC surface-to-sea missile fired from the Iranian coast pierced the Tulkarem’s hull, releasing tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil and engulfing the tanker in flames. Kuwaiti officials have yet to release an official death toll.

Responding to the attack on the Tulkarem, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen called the situation “unacceptable,” adding “the United States will not allow Iran to hold the world’s oil supplies hostage.”

Following Admiral Mullen’s comments, the US Navy intervened and restored access to the vital passage after three days of intensive bombardment of the Iranian coast.

Security experts agree that today’s attack on Abqaiq represents a far more serious act than the blockade of Hormuz. Several analysts have predicted that the US and Israel will launch strikes against IRGC bases in Tehran, escalating the conflict and driving global oil prices to previously unseen levels. Crude prices began climbing rapidly following news of the Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites on February 13. And as word of today’s attack spread through global commodity markets, the price of oil shot to just under $300 a barrel.

Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer in the Middle East, predicts the rising price of oil will have immediate and disastrous effects throughout the developing world. “At $300 a barrel we will see true misery in the third world,” Mr. Baer said. While the price of basic goods has become high in the West, Baer fears that those goods will become unobtainable to hundreds of millions of the world’s poor.

“This is a very dangerous perfect storm,” he added.

Rioting has already been reported in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Military officials have declared their intent to intervene if civilian governments fail to stem the unrest.

There are now fears that the stability of American-backed secular regimes across the Middle East may be at risk. The first fissures are appearing in Cairo where Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s security forces have begun firing on mass demonstrations initiated and led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Part Two


Iranian cleric wants creation of 'Greater Iran'
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI (AP) – 6 hours ago

TEHRAN, Iran — A radical cleric called Saturday for the creation of a "Greater Iran" that would rule over the entire Middle East and Central Asia, in an event that he said would herald the coming of Islam's expected messiah.


Ayatollah Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi said the creation of what he calls an Islamic United States is a central aim of the political party he leads called Hezbollah, or Party of God, and that he hoped to make it a reality if they win the next presidential election.


Kharrazi's comments reveal the thinking of a growing number of hard-liners in Iran, many of whom have become more radical during the postelection political crisis and the international standoff over the country's nuclear program. Kharrazi, however, is not highly influential in Iran's clerical hierarchy and his views do not represent those of the current government.


Kharrazi's comments were published Saturday in his newspaper, Hezbollah.


He said he envisioned a Greater Iran that would stretch from Afghanistan to Israel, bringing about the destruction of the Jewish state.


He also said its formation would be a prelude to the reappearance of the Mahdi, a revered ninth-century saint known as the Hidden Imam, whom Muslims believe will reappear before judgment day to end tyranny and promote justice in the world.


"The Islamic United States will be an introduction to the formation of the global village of the oppressed and that will be a prelude to the single global rule of the Mahdi," the Hezbollah newspaper quoted him as saying.


Besides Israel, he said the union would also destroy Shiite Iran's other regional adversaries, whom he called "cancerous tumors." He singled out secular Arab nationalists such as members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party in Iraq, as well as followers of the austere version of Sunni Islam practiced primarily in Saudi Arabia that is known as Wahabism.


Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab nations have watched Iran's growing regional clout with deep concern.


The growing voice of hard-liners like Kharrazi has deepened worries even if it appears unlikely such a divisive figure would win the 2013 presidential election.


Still, even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that he expects the government which follows his to be "ten times more revolutionary."