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Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Navy would move to stop any Iranian
attempt to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz or Persian Gulf as an “act
of war” the international community wouldn’t tolerate, the U.S. Navy’s
top Gulf commander said.

Iran’s inventory of thousands of mines
“represents an indiscriminate and very difficult maritime problem,”
comparable to the improvised roadside bombs used in Iraq and Afghanistan
to kill U.S. troops, Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of the U.S. 5th
Fleet, told reporters at his Bahrain headquarters and on a conference
call today.

Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said
on Dec. 27 that his nation may close the Strait, the passageway for
about one-fifth of globally traded oil, if the U.S. and its allies
impose stricter economic sanctions in an effort to halt his country’s
nuclear research. U.S. officials, including Pentagon spokesman George
Little, have said since that threat that they haven’t seen any Iranian
moves to close the waterway.

“The laying of mines in international waters is
an act of war,” Fox said today. “We would, under the direction of the
national leadership, prevent that from happening. We always have the
right and obligation of self-defense and this falls in ‘self-defense.’

‘‘If we did no... >>>