Posted on 01/04/2024 6:17:05 AM PST by SJackson
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander, has recently been crowing about how the Islamic Republic of Iran had managed to disrupt traffic in the Persian Gulf, and now it is doing the same in the Red Sea. Full of braggadocio, he threatens that now the Islamic Republic will close off the entire Mediterranean Sea, and keep it closed until Israel halts its war in Gaza.
The Arabs call the Mediterranean El-Bahr el-Abiadh el-Moutawwassit, “la mer blanche du milieu” in French, and “the white sea in the middle [of the world]” in English. In the time of the Barbary Pirates, Muslim corsairs from North Africa would attack ships of the Christian powers throughout the Mediterranean, seizing the ships and enslaving their Christian seamen. Payment of a large ransom could sometimes, but not always, obtain the freeing both of the sailors and of the ships. Such attacks came to an end when the seamen of the young American Republic made war, successfully, on those they called the Barbary Pirates, and thereby put paid to those attacks on Christian ships by Muslim privateers. The Iranians ought to remember that history; it did not end well for the Muslims.
More on the threats of the Iranian boaster Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi can be found here: “Iran threatens Mediterranean closure over Gaza, without saying how,” i24News, December 23, 2023:
Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen has over the past month attacked merchant vessels sailing through the Red Sea as the group threatens to hit any Israel-linked ship. The series of incidents led some shipping companies to switch routes.
The White House on Friday [Dec. 22] said Iran was “deeply involved” in planning operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The US on Monday announced plans to spearhead an international maritime coalition, responding to escalating attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebels.
Perhaps, in threatening to close down the Mediterranean, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Brigadier General Mohammed Reza Naqdi was carried away by the recent success of the Islamic Republic’s proxies, the Houthis of Yemen, in using drones to attack ships in the Red Sea, causing commercial shipping in that international waterway to be halted. But now that the Americans have created an international coalition of naval powers to provide security in the Red Sea against Houthi drones, one can reasonably expect that they will no longer merely defend against those attacks, but will take the battle right to the Houthis in Yemen, with airstrikes on drone storehouses and Houthi fighters, crippling the Houthis as a military power.
Iran has no direct access to the Mediterranean itself and it was not clear how the Guards could attempt to close it off, although Naqdi talked of “the birth of new powers of resistance and the closure of other waterways.”
“Yesterday, the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz became a nightmare for them, and today they are trapped … in the Red Sea,” Naqdi was quoted as saying.
Just a minute, Brigadier General Naqdi. Last I looked, oil tankers were moving freely down the Persian Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz out to the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. And ships that had in previous weeks been avoiding the Red Sea, including those of shipping giant Maersk, are at the end of December using that sea route again. For the world’s maritime companies and countries have received confirmation that the previously announced multi-national security initiative, Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), has now been set up and deployed to allow maritime commerce to pass through the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden and once again to return to using the Suez Canal as of December 24.
That same Operation Prosperity Guardian could organize and send a multi-national flotilla right now, as a prompt response to Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi’s threat to “block the Mediterranean,” and station it smack in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar, ready to blow out of the water any Iranian ship that dared to come close. That will be the end result of Naqdi’s empty threat. It’s just one more example — there are so many — of the braggart warriors in Tehran, shooting themselves in the foot.
Iranian a-holes sure like to talk a lot
Barbary Pirates?! “Dr.” Jill would invite them to the White House to do a other dance.
Just do it...................FAFO..............
One of these days Alice, “TO THE MOON!”
Panic
You’d think the Iranians might remember “Operation Praying Mantis” when Reagan sank about half the Iranian navy in less than a day.
If President Jefferson had dispatched the U.S. Navy to the Mediterranean Sea and landed the Marines in Tripoli to protect Danish ships operating under the flag of Singapore transporting cargo from Asia to Europe, he would have been set on fire on the front lawn of Monticello.
The Americans and America that took care of the Babary Pirates are both gone now. They have been replaced by slackers, wokesters, cowards, communists and an invading army of beaners. The pirates are safe now.
Not Biden’s America. It’ll be buns up to the Islamics
If Iran tries, I am sure Team Biden’s response will be measured and proportional 😂😂😂😂😂.
🎶 From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli... 🎶
Likelt to. ask them to perform “Pirate of Penzance”. Also thinking this ain’t the same country that “ handled” the Barbary pirates.......🤔
🙏🇺🇸🇮🇱👍
***how Americans handled the Barbary Pirates****
But, that was when we had a REAL PRESIDENT! Not the senile mouthpiece we see today.
And the Marine Corps which proudly remembers the "shores of Tripoli" is in the process of being destroyed by the Biden administration.
If only we had “Americans” leading the country now....
Yes, but those were Americans not Obama/Biden democra5s,
This reminded me of the story that after settling the war with the 3 North African pirate kingdoms captain Decatur
was returning home, in the Mediterranean sea aboard the
American frigate Lawrence.
His lookouts noticed 3 ships approaching. They were from the
Barbary kingdoms and Capt. Decatur wasn’t taking any chances.
He ordered the guns rolled out and the call to battle stations.
As the ships closed the lead Barbary ship hailed the Lawrence.
Now the normal, accepted hail in these days was “what ship”.
and the hailed ship would respond with the ships name and usually where you were out of( the port).
But the barbary ship called out, “ where are you going”.
This was a rude way of asking a question that was none of their business.
So Captain Decatur hailed back, “ anywhere I want”.
He then continued on his way.
We need Captains like him now.
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