Britain brags about war on Iran

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/219801.html

British foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has violated the international law by threatening to attack Iran if it closes its territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz to transit.

His threat comes despite Iran's clarification that it does not seek to close the strategic waterway and the fact that under the international law the issue is not Britain's business as it has no sovereignty in the region.

Hammond said in a speech in Washington that closure of the World's most important oil artery would be “illegal and unsuccessful” saying Britain and the US would keep the water lane open using the might of their “joint naval presence” in the Persian Gulf.

His illegal threat against Iran as a sovereign nation followed Iranian Navy's massive military exercises over an area from the east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden, which the Navy said were defensive in nature.

Iranian Navy chief, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari earlier made clear “our intention is to bring stability and security to the region” without any need to “resorting to powers from outside.”

Hammond's talk of war and the legal status of an attempt to close the strategic waterway also came as almost any vessel sailing through the Strait of Hormuz should pass through Iranian territorial waters especially upon entrance into the Persian Gulf where ships have to pass the waters off the Iranian islands of the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb, and Faroor.

Indeed, Hammond risked international derision by describing a sovereign country's move to block its own territory to international transit as illegal while he was himself violating the United Nations Charter.

The UN Charter prohibits member states from both threatening and using force against other member states in international disputes, except in self-defense.

The Strait of Hormuz is vital to global oil trade as 40 percent of the seaborne oil transit, equal to a daily 15.5 million barrels of oil passes through the waterway.

Peace activists have described Britain's “saber-rattling” against Iran as “beyond stupid” while there are fundamental questions about the fact that Britain is capable of going to another war following the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, which have brought the British economy to its knees.

Hammond hid that aspect of the issue when talking of Iran, yet he confirmed the financial setbacks to any future military adventurism by London officials elsewhere in his comments.

"Without strong economies and stable public finances it is impossible to build and sustain, in the long-term, the military capability required to project power and maintain defence,” he said.

"That is why today the debt crisis should be considered the greatest strategic threat to the future security of our nations," he added.