Iran launches drill in the Straits of Hormuz just as Fiscal Cliff drama reaches end of December climax ......And now , will Iran be blamed for Taliban attacks on western advisers as well ?

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/12/20121225233041666942.html

( This would be the same GCC meddling in the internal affairs of Syria , right ?  Guess that's different... )

GCC states slam Iran interference in region

At a summit in Manama, six Gulf states demand their neighbour to stop meddling in their internal affairs. Last Modified: 26 Dec 2012 00:07 inShare1 Email Print Share Feedback

Dignitaries from the six Gulf states gathered for a summit in Manama, Bahrain [Reuters]

The six Gulf states have sharpened their tone against their neighbour Iran, demanding an immediate halt to its "interference" in their internal affairs while urging action to halt mass killings and violations of international law in Syria. Concluding a two-day summit in Manama, the Gulf Cooperation Council members voiced support for Bahrain while lashing out at Tehran, which they accuse of fueling a Shia-led uprising in the host country last year. "The council expressed its rejection and condemnation of the continuing Iranian interference in the affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council's states and called on Iran to stop these policies," a joint statement issued at the end of the summit said on Tuesday. The council said they "reject and denounce" Iran's "continued interference" in their internal affairs that increase regional tension and threaten security and stability. The six states - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates - also condemned Iran's "continued occupation of the three Emirati islands" of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb, which lie in the strategic Strait of Hormuz entrance to the Gulf. In addition to the dispute over the islands, relations between Iran and most GCC states have been further strained since Gulf troops rolled into Bahrain last year to help put down the protests. 'Looming' threat Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister, said: "There is very serious threat from many ways [by Iran]. There is political threat, as you said, lots of meddling in the affairs of the GCC states ... There is an environmental threat coming to our region from the technology used in some of the nuclear facilities, and there is of course the threat looming always regarding the nuclear programme of a conflict that can erupt any moment, so the threat level is quite high." On the conflict in Syria, the statement, read out by GCC Secretary-General Abdulatif al-Zayani, added: "We ask the international community for serious and swift moves to stop these massacres and these severe attacks." The GCC leaders expressed "deep sadness over the continued shedding of blood by the regime and the destruction of cities and infrastructure, making political transition a demand which must be rapidly implemented". The GCC states also affirmed their support for the newly-formed opposition National Coalition "as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people". The summit had opened on Monday with a call for closer economic integration and unity in the face of the turmoil which has swept much of the Middle East and North Africa.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-25/iran-launches-week-long-straits-hormuz-naval-drill-friday-next-us-aircraft-carrier

Iran Launches Week-Long Straits Of Hormuz Naval Drill On Friday, Next To US Aircraft Carrier

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/25/2012 09:48 -0500

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With the market still hopeful of some deus ex resolution to the Fiscal Cliff will take place in the last few trading sessions of the year (one where the market itself will not have to be the catalyst for such a resolution, because once the selling starts in earnest, who knows if and when it stops, hence the loading up on prodigious amounts of puts), here is Iran out of left field, adding yet another known unknown to the inequality, announcing that it will begin six days of naval drills in the Straits of Hormuz on Friday. In other words a one year flashback deja vu, as Iran held a similar 10-day drill last December, when everyone was expecting an imminent escalation out of the endless Israel-Iran foreplay and was analyzing which were the new moon days allowing Israel unobstructed access to the greatest distraction of all - Iran's nuclear facility being moved under a mountain: a catalyst which Israel repeatedly said is the only reason to attack a weaponizing, nuclear Iran, and which took place some time in 2012. Now that the official window of opportunity is closed, will Israel tone back on the aggressive rhetoric? Hardly: after all that is precisely why the Syrian "outlet valve" has been put in play over the past 6 months.

From Reuters:

Iran will begin six days of naval drills in the Strait of Hormuz at the end of this week, an Iranian naval commander said on Tuesday, an exercise meant to showcase its military capabilities in what is a vital oil and gas shipping route.

The "Velayat 91" drills will be held from Friday to Wednesday across an area of about 1 million square kilometres in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and northern parts of the Indian Ocean, said Habibollah Sayyari, according to Iranian media.

Iranian officials have often said that Iran could block the strait - through which 40 percent of the world's sea-borne oil exports pass - if it came under military attack over its disputed nuclear programme.

Sayyari was quoted as saying the new drill would test the navy's missile systems, combat ships, submarines and patrol and reconnaissance methods.

"In this exercise we will use the navy's newest weapons and tactics," Sayyari said. "Certainly we will observe the marine borders of neighbouring states and will carry out our exercises according to international laws and regulations."

A heavy Western naval presence in the Gulf is meant to deter any attempt to block the waterway.

And making sure there is no chance of escalation, the aircraft carrier Stennis, CVN-74, as shown in the US naval update map courtesy of Stratfor will be right there, quietly watching every move of the Iranian navy, often times smack in the middle of the drills.

And just to get the blood really going, Iran media has reported that there has been another Stuxnet-based attempt to cripple Iranian infrastructure. As a reminder, Stuxnet is the computer "virus" which crippled the Iranian nuclear power plant and set back the project by months. Via AP:

An Iranian semi-official news agency says there has been another cyberattack by the sophisticated computer worm Stuxnet, this time on the industries in the country's south.

Tuesday's report by ISNA quotes provincial civil defense chief Ali Akbar Akhavan as saying the virus targeted a power plant and some other industries in Hormozgan province in recent months. Akhavan says Iranian computer experts were able to "successfully stop" the worm.

Iran has repeatedly claimed defusing cyber worms and malware, including Stuxnet and Flame viruses that targeted the vital oil sector, which provides 80 percent of the country's foreign revenue.

Tehran has said both worms are part of a secret U.S.-Israeli program that seeks to destabilize Iran's nuclear program. The West suspects Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran denies.

Has the time come for perfectly inexplicable bid-hitting attacks (thanks BIS) to start targeting the Brent complex just as geopolitical tensions threaten to push it far higher once more?  The good news is that at least silver may be allowed to crawl out above $30 now that central banks are certain to not pump about $2 trillion in 2013. Oh wait...

and.......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/25/afghanistan-policewoman-killed-adviser-iranian

Afghanistan says policewoman who killed US adviser is Iranian

Interior ministry claims Segeant Nargas, accused of killing Joseph Griffin, came from Iran 10 years ago

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• Associated Press and Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 December 2012 08.01 EST

Afghan policewomen attend a graduation ceremony in Herat. Nargas is the first female to be allegedly involved in the shooting of a foreign ally. Photograph: Jalil Rezayee/EPA

An Afghan official says the policewoman who killed a US consultant in Kabul is an Iranian who came to Afghanistan 10 years ago with her husband and obtained a fake ID through him.

Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said on Tuesday she had displayed "unstable behaviour" but that the investigation revealed no militants links so far.

On Monday, the policewoman identified only as Sergeant Nargas shot 49-year-old Joseph Griffin, of Mansfield, Georgia, in what was the first such shooting by a woman in a spate of insider attacks by Afghans against their foreign allies.

The US-based security firm DynCorp International says on its website that Griffin was a U.S. military veteran who had earlier worked with law enforcement agencies.

In Kabul, he was advising the Afghan police force and was killed on Monday morning.

There have been very few female combatants among insurgent ranks in conservative and male-dominated Afghanistan, although the Taliban did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack. A spokesman said the group was investigating.

More than 60 soldiers and civilian advisers have been killed in 46 shootings this year, compared with 35 deaths in all of 2011. They account for nearly one in six of all Nato casualties in Afghanistan, and risk undermining the entire mission as it shifts towards a bigger focus on training.

However, it was unprecedented to have a woman pulling the trigger and unusual to have an attack at such a high-level office, although two officers were shot dead in the interior ministry at the start of the year.

The woman was confused and weeping, according to a police source from a gender awareness section of the interior ministry, which supervises the police. "She is crying and saying 'what have I done,'" Reuters news agency quoted the source saying.