Iran's finger is on the trigger.

[sammyg2]

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran test-fired a long-range missile on Wednesday in response to what it says are threats from Israel and the United States, Iranian officials said.

Iran says this test-firing was a success.

"We want to tell the world that those who conduct their foreign policy by using the language of threat against Iran have to know that our finger is always on the trigger and we have hundreds and even thousands of missiles ready to be fired against predetermined targets," Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard ground forces, said on state TV.

"We will chase the enemies on the ground and in the sky and we are able react strongly to enemy's threats in shortest possible time."

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps test-fired a Shahab-3 missile and several other missiles during war games in the Persian Gulf called the Great Prophet III, according to Iran's state-run media and a U.S. military source.

William Burns, a senior U.S. State Department official, said Iran is "as serious ... a problem as any we face today."

The exercise comes a month after Israel conducted a military drill in the eastern Mediterranean involving dozens of warplanes, and the latest Iranian activities prompted concern from Israel and condemnation from the United States.

Iran occasionally tests missiles, but this firing comes amid international tensions over its nuclear aspirations.

The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said "the war game was aimed at improving the combat readiness of Iran's armed forces. The 2,000-kilometers-range Shahab-3 missiles were tested to demonstrate Iran's capability in hitting its enemies accurately at the early stages of their probable attacks against the Islamic Republic."

[Aurel]

Any conflict with Iran would close the straight of Ormuz and cut 40% of the oil supply. Nobody wants that. On the other hand, if nothing is done, they will have their finger on the nuke trigger pretty soon. Though situation. The big question for me is what does Iran want? What if we leave them alone? Will they try do destroy Israel? Take over Iraq? At any rate, I see very well that the current Iran situation was fathered by the Iraq invasion. Their defensive attitude was certainly motivated by the idea that they could be next, since they too have oil...

Aurel

[Red Baron]

Damn sure can't ignore a guy who is named General Salami

[island911]

Originally Posted by Aurel

... the current Iran situation was fathered by the Iraq invasion. Their defensive attitude was certainly motivated by the idea that they could be next, since they too have oil...

Aurel

Do you mean, because of all that oil we took from Iraq?

..oh, and get back to work. We need some good batteries.

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by island911

Do you mean, because of all that oil we took from Iraq?

..oh, and get back to work. We need some good batteries.

Batteries? We ain`t doing too bad. Look what my buddies from Altair did yesterday:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0413723.htm

Aurel

[tabs]

Naw this is tit for tat...the Israelies did a dry run, the Iranians fired some missiles...Both are letting each other know there is going to be no free ride and that they are serious mterfkers.

Both Bushy and Aberjowocky have said "No War today, sorry folks." Oil went up by 1 cent over this.

[JeremyD]

Just trying to keep the price of oil artificially high

[Super_Dave_D]

Originally Posted by Aurel

Any conflict with Iran would close the straight of Ormuz Aurel

No way.....any "conventional" conflict with Iran would be over quickly just as it was with Iraq. Their navy would be sunk and air force would cease to exist just as fast as Iraq's did. They couldn't close it - maybe disrupt it for a couple days.

[futuresoptions]

I just hope it is televised for my viewing pleasure....