washington column. the news is breaking on a day that israel s defense minister warned that iran is building weapons under ground. in other words, a window of opportunity may be closing, and israeli forces could take action before it does. also today, senior israeli officials tell the nooi new yor times that the iranian guard are working on missiles that could reach the continental u.s. from iran. and also testimony that iran could answer growing pressure on it by attacks on american soil. this is playing out between u.s. war ships and gun boats in the strait of hormuz. it s also playing out on the diplomatic front with sanctions. the question, will israel give sanctions tyke to bite, and what will we do if they decide to act. there have also been a number of iranian nuclear scientists who have been assassinated in tay hahn by unknown assailants. first, the latest from chris lawrence at the pentagon. what other details are your sources telling about this apparent growing lik
threatening to close the strait as global pressure grows over its nuclear program. 17 million barrels of oil flow through the strait every day. it s a choke point. as american officials have been warning privately and publicly, it is also a serious flash point. what about if they decide to block us off at the straits of hormuz? we made very clear that the united states will not tolerate blocking of the straits of hormuz. that s another red line for us and that we will respond to that. we will respond, he says. the question tonight is what will iran do next. what happens then. and what s being done right now to head off a crisis. barbara starr is at the pentagon. jill dougherty covering the diplomatic angle. and on the phone, kirk lippold, former commander of the uss cole. what does the u.s. believe the intent was? trying to bait the u.s. military, provoke an altercation? maybe a little bit of both. the thinking is is the iranians really were not looking for a shooti
economy and the iranian government. when i worked for ronald reagan, how did we end the cold war? reagan so pushed and so stressed the soviet economy that ultimately its own people came up and said we want a different regime. right now the brits in the last month have passed serious sanctions. the u.s. on new year s eve did and the brits and europeans are set to do it at the end of sanctions. this is in fact a blockade against iranian oil. iranian oil won t get to market. we are not blockading with gun boats but with banks. and if that happens and if it happens quickly you could see a crash of the iranian economy which gets 80% of iranian gdp comes from the oil business. if they can t get that oil to market they don t have enough money to run the government, to give subsidies to the people, to pay for their weapons program. jenna: that becomes again the year of reckoning as you pointed out is this year. we also have an election coming up. a lot going on inside that country. some sugges
crude oil supplies. kt mcfarland is a fox news military analyst. she joins us now. thanks for joining us. pleasure, uma. uma: the white house has been saying through some administration officials there is a plan in place should there be a crisis where this kind of scenario would unfold where iran would try to block the strait of hormuz but offering few details about this. how confident are you that the white house can handle such a situation and the impact it is going to have on the world market? well, there are a couple of things to consider. right now the president is about to sign into legislation legislation that the congress forced on him to basically say, we re going to have a blockade of iran s oil supplies but we re not going to do it with gun boats. we re going to do it with banks. iran says you want a blockade? i will give you a blockade. we ll shut down the strait of hormuz. is that a real threat?
reportedly even took a sample of its secret radar evading skin. pakistani officials were reportedly furious over that u.s. raid which did not have pakistani approval. we re told that could explain their cooperation with china. more than a dozen attacks inside one war torn country reportedly killing more than 60 people. it s the top story as we go around the world in 80 seconds. iraq. the coordinated explosions coming from car bombs, roadside bombs, and bombs attached to light poles in several major cities including baghdad. the largest number of blasts in a province north of the capital. worst day of attacks in iraq this year. some analysts say it highlights al qaeda s continued strength in that country. syria. amateur video said to show the government s latest attempts to silence protesters calling for the president bashar assad to step down. the military reportedly storming a western port city. tanks and gun boats.