By Andrew L. Jaffee

So there was a fly on the wall during Iranian government meetings at which the fate of British hostages was decided. A source cited by NewsMax.com revealed a divided Iranian regime, some of whose members became fearful of a growing American naval presence in the region. Rumors that “the USS Nimitz was steaming toward the Persian Gulf – making it the third Carrier Strike Group in the area,” upped the ante. Bullies like “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who hang teenagers for being gay, and threaten tiny countries like Israel with annihilation, only respond to force. Here is the mullah hand-wringing:

…But as Britain refused to apologize for the behavior of its boarding party, continuing to insist that they were operating in Iraqi waters – not inside Iran’s territorial waters, as Tehran alleged – some of Khamenei’s advisers began to have second thoughts. [Continues below…]

Adding to those doubts were reports that the USS Nimitz was steaming toward the Persian Gulf – making it the third Carrier Strike Group in the area.

The Nimitz is expected to join the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS John C. Stennis, both currently in the Persian Gulf, in the coming weeks.

On Friday, March 30, Khamenei’s top advisers met in an emergency session of the Supreme Council on National Security, chaired by Ali Larijani. Larijani is the regime’s top nuclear negotiator, and is a confidant of the Supreme Leader, while maintaining close ties to President Ahmadinejad.

The Nimitz

At that meeting, Revolutionary Guards commander Maj. Gen. Rahim Safavi reported that the deployment of the Nimitz suggested that a U.S. military invasion of Iran was being prepared for early May. He urged the Council to order the release of the British hostages as a gesture to defuse the tension in the region.

The next day, however, the head of the Political and Cultural bureau of the Revolutionary Guards, Dr. Yadollah Javani, called Safavi a “traitor” for proposing the release of the hostages. …

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Related: United States, Iran, War Against Islamo-fascism, Europe

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