Iran Up And Hit 'Em In Da Grill

Iran is dropping the pretense on why the West won't touch them on oil sanctions: they promise an era of $250 a barrel crude as a result.

"As soon as such an issue is raised seriously the oil price would soar to above $250 a barrel," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a newspaper interview.

The comments come as Iran strives to contain international reaction to the storming of the British embassy last week, a move which drew immediate condemnation from around the world and may galvanize support for tougher action against Tehran.

One would think that the game of "who keeps blowing up Iran's nuclear facilities" was obvious, but then again denial isn't just a rive in Egypt, as they say.

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank -- which takes payment for the 2.6 million barrels Iran exports a day. The European Union is considering a ban -- already in place in the United States -- on Iranian oil imports.

So far neither Washington nor Brussels has finalized its move against the oil trade or the central bank amid fears of the possible impact on the global economy of restricting oil flows from the world's fifth biggest exporter.

Yeah, this is a card that will not be played anytime soon, everyone knows it, Iran is simply pointing it out.  Especially with the eurozone on verge of economic breakdown and the US economy not in too much better shape, serious oil sanctions on Tehran simply isn't an option.

So, we all go back to pretending Tehran's scientific nuclear labs are blowing up due to mysterious circumstances along with spontaneous student flash mobs closing the British Embassy there.

Such an odd little war.

Iran's military said on Sunday it had shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone aircraft in eastern Iran, a military source told state television.

"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted the unnamed source as saying.

Iran also announcing that  it will shoot down drones in neighboring airspace. Cooler heads prevailing and all.

We hope.