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12 American Warships, Including One Aircraft Carrier, And One Israeli Corvette, Cross Suez Canal On Way To Red Sea And Beyond
Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi reports that 12 American warships, among which one aircraft carrier, as well as one Israeli corvette, and possibly a submarine, have crossed the Suez Canal on their way to the Red Sea. Concurrently, thousands of Egyptian soldiers were deployed along the canal to protect the ships. The passage disrupted traffic into the manmade canal for the "longest time in years." The immediate destination of the fleet is unknown. According to Global Security, two other carriers are already deployed in the region, with the CVN-73 Washington in the western Pacific as of May 26, and the CVN-69 Eisenhower supporting operation Enduring Freedom as of May 22. It is unclear at first read what the third carrier group may be, but if this news, which was also confirmed by the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, is correct, then the Debka report about a surge in aircraft activity in the Persian Gulf is well on its way to being confirmed. There has been no update on the three Israeli nuclear-armed subs that are believed to be operating off the coast of Iran currently.
From the original article, translated by Google and Zero Hedge:
Shipping sources in the city of Suez on Friday have said that 12 U.S. warships, including a giant Israeli warship, have crossed the Suez Canal in the early hours of dawn on Friday, en route to the Red Sea coast, at the same time as the channel has seen large numbers of soldiers. According to sources and eyewitnesses 'The Suez Canal traffic was disrupted for hours in the morning during the crossing of U.S. Navy, which includes a giant aircraft carrier, soldiers, ships and infantry, armor and ammunition, coming from the Mediterranean Sea on its way to the Red Sea'. The sources revealed that many merchant ships were disrupted outside the channel until the completion of the Navy passage, which observers said was one of the longest since several years. The sources added that the movement of fishing boats in the Bitter Lakes and Lake Gator and navigation between the two shores of the Suez Canal over the Peace Bridge and ferries of individuals and vehicles may be stopped completely.
Egypt deployed thousands of soldiers on both sides of the Suez Canal for insurance; witnesses said 'The Israeli warships were seen among the U.S. warships but official sources have not confirmed the information'.
Maj. Gen. Amin Radi Secretary of the Committee on National Security in the People's Assembly made an exclusive statement to to Al Quds Al Arabi, that the "decision to declare war on Iran is not easy, but Israel was known for her Beslvha and Arabdtha may provide to the war in order to maintain its leadership in the region as nuclear weapons are the only deterrent."
Radhi said, 'should be the scourge of Israel tend to be left a free hand should be forced by the international community to disarm its nuclear weapons before calling for strike on Iran'. In a related development, the opposition warned from various that the Egyptian regime that allows a repeat of the historica mistake when opening the Suez Canal to cross the fleet-American attack on Iraq in this context, Abdullah said Alsnanwi editor of 'Arab Nazareth' for 'Al Quds Al Arabi' that 'the Egyptians will not stand idly by this time they see the system of government in a major scandal in coordination with Israel and America to open the Suez Canal to attack Iran and Islam." He expressed surprise at the crossing of a huge number of American battleships, along with an Israeli sub carrying nuclear warheads, and wondered, what is the secret channel those huge numbers of warships to the Gulf, and he believed the difficulty to enter the U.S. facing big problems in Afghanistan and Iraq to open a front with Iran.
For his part, the leader of the Brotherhood warned of the consequences of a strike on Iran, stressing that accept the Arab and Muslim world such a thing is unacceptable and should not be silent if the masses bowed to the will of the governments in Washington and Tel Aviv.
The international media has pointed to the direction of an Israeli nuclear submarine model 'Dolphin' carry nuclear warheads and warships to the Gulf region in light of tensions with Iran.
With Iran warned Friday that any act against the interests of the Iranian people, legal and legitimate will result in legal response and appropriate action by Iran, said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that U.S. intelligence that indicates that it is likely to possess Tehran the ability to attack Europe ' tens or even hundreds of rockets' taken into account in the Government's decision to modify the Obama system for missile defenses. The United States has cited the growing threat of Iranian missiles when it announced in September (September) last plans to integrate missile defenses at sea and ashore in the member states of NATO in Europe and around the States in what was dubbed 'adaptive phased approach'. Gates said in a hearing on Congress 'among the elements of information that contributed to the decision to approach the interim adjustment to recognize that if Iran actually launched a rocket attack on Europe would not be just a missile or two or a few. He added, 'but is likely to be attacked with a barrage of missiles because of its potential to deal with tens or even hundreds of rockets'.
We have submitted a query to Hillary Clinton for confirmation, in advance of her meeting with Israel defense minister Ehud Barak, who flew in to the US on Saturday for meetings with the former first lady, as well as Robert Gates and Chairman of the JCS Mike Mullen. And yes, the Joint Chiefs of Staff don't really get involved in high level "diplomacy" all that often.
Update: it appears the Aircraft Carrier crossing the Suez is almost certainly CVN-75 Harry Truman, which until recently was in the Mediterranean according to Stratfor. According to Wikipedia, "the super carrier can accommodate approximately 80 aircraft." For some more curious information on the Truman, click here.
2. Next weekends G-20 meeting is exactly at the lunar eclipse on the Grand Cross which is rather a harbinger of gloom and doom as nothing good can come out of that summit unless there is a radical change which is by monitoring recent regulatory diluted measures and ongoing money printing like winning a lottery ticket probability.
The fact that china declares that the dollar peg will be lifted in moderate manner signals rather 2 things one is they are about to establish the Yuan as an reserve currency alternative and will ahve to issue bonds i,n order to do so since central banks need to earn interest. The other would be they are preparing a huge exit from Treasuries otherwise they would lock in huge losses on the currency going forward hence the first thing is to declare the flexibility in order to find trading partners who are willing to take the other side. problem is rather that right now the broad perception would be that yuan rises anyway and no one would take the other side of the trade. so what would a pool operator or manipulator have to do is to create a surprising weakening of the Yuan in the first phase which would automatically create others to follow this trend. well in order to achieve that you need to do 2 things come up with a serious of disappointing economic news. Phase 2 of the operation would be too buy tons of puts and start unloading futures to trigger a sell off in stock markets which will automatically trigger save heaven buying into the Dollar and Treasuries that is where you can unload your holdings and make decent money on top of selling at a good price. One effect makes this kind of manipulations really easy these days as HFT will pull the plugs again as soon as a given level of volatility is reached which is not that hard to create if you have the critical mass a pool operator should have anyway.
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PBOC: No One-Off Adjustment of Yuan
By ANDREW BATSON And AARON BACK
BEIJING--China's central bank said Sunday that there will be no one-off adjustment of the yuan, confirming that its pledge on Saturday to increase the currency's flexibility after nearly two years of being pegged against the dollar isn't going to lead to its large, rapid appreciation.
Clarifying its long-awaited move to stop pegging its currency from the dollar, the People's Bank of China said Sunday that big exchange rate fluctuations "are not in China's interest," and any movement in the yuan exchange rate will be gradual.
Saturday's statement was widely welcomed by China's trading partners as a sign that China will let the yuan resume appreciating against the dollar—possibly as soon as Monday—after nearly two years of being effectively pegged around 6.83 yuan per dollar. China's announcement was timed just ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 leading industrial and developing nations next weekend in Toronto. China wanted to avoid its currency policies from becoming a focus of international criticism at the summit, analysts say.
Sunday's statement said that adjustments in the exchange rate must be carried out gradually to give companies time to adjust to the impacts of fluctuations.
There will be no change in the yuan's daily 0.5% trading band against the dollar, the statement said. The yuan's exchange rate will be flexible "in both directions," meaning it may move down as well as up, the PBOC said.
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