Iranian ships and aircraft were keeping a close watch on the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Battle Group as it transited the Strait of Hormuz on its way out of the Persian Gulf on Tuesday. The surveillance was described by officers on the Lincoln as routine, and there was no warning from Teheran that the carrier should not come back, as there was the last time a US carrier left the Gulf. A naval exercise by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has also been relatively quiet, with no overt threats made to tanker traffic. Also on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that “we do not think that Israel has made this decision (to attack Iran). We have common cause with Israel, we have common cause with the international community, with regards to concerns about Iran. We’ve made very clear that they are not to develop a nuclear weapon.”
“We’ve made very clear that they are not to close the Straits of Hormuz. We’ve also made very clear that they are not to export terrorism and try to undermine other governments. We think that the approach of the international community, to apply sanctions, to apply pressure, is having an impact. It has isolated Iran. My hope would be that we could all stick together in ensuring that we continue to isolate Iran.”
Elsewhere Mohammad Ali Khatibi, Iran’s envoy to OPEC, warned on Tuesday that US and EU sanctions on Iran's oil exports will drive up oil prices globally because no viable alternative exists for the Islamic republic's output.
"If there were an assured substitute for a big oil exporter then the sanctions would not send a price shock to the market.... (But) conditions in different nations show that, in present circumstances, a substitute does not exist," Khatibi said. "Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf," were also affecting prices he insisted.
The statement was in direct contradiction to a statement last week by Saudi Arabia that it had more than enough spare capacity to make up for sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.
