Iran won't succeed with Gulf blockade, naval leader warns

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy and its Gulf allies will not allow Iran to seal off the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf said Wednesday.

Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the 5th Fleet, made the warning during talks with naval commanders of Gulf countries in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi. The one-day meeting was to focus on the security of the region's maritime and trade routes and the threat of terrorism.

Tension has been high between Iran and the West over accusations that Iran is supporting Shiite militias in Iraq and using its nuclear program as cover for weapons development. Iran has denied both claims.

Iran's top diplomat predicted Wednesday that the United States and Israel would not risk the "craziness" of attacking his country and possibly provoking a wider Middle East war or driving oil prices to uncharted heights.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in an interview with The Associated Press that he does not believe a military strike is looming while the U.S. economy is suffering and it is bogged down in a seven-year-old campaign in Afghanistan and one of more than five years in Iraq.

Mottaki pointedly did not rule out trying to restrict oil traffic in the strategic Strait of Hormuz if Iran was attacked.

"In Iran, we must defend our national security, our country and our revolutionary system, and we will continue to do so," he said.

President Bush and others in Washington made it clear Wednesday that all options are on the table with regard to Iran and its nuclear program, but a military strike would not be Bush's first choice in the waning months of his presidency.

At a Defense Department news conference, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities would be a high-risk move that could destabilize the Middle East.

Mullen would not say, however, what Israeli leaders told him during meetings last week about any intentions to strike Iran. "This is a very unstable part of the world and I don't need it to be more unstable," he said.

A report by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker this week said that the United States has stepped up covert action intended to destabilize Iran's religious leadership. Mottaki described it as one of a series of such U.S. operations in Iran.

Cosgriff's comments follow Iranian threats that it could seal off the key passageway if there is a Western attack on Iran. But Cosgriff said that if Iran tried to choke off Hormuz, the "international community would find its voice rapidly" against Iran.