Iran tensions: Saudi calls for urgent Arab talks

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has called for emergency regional talks to discuss mounting Gulf tensions, saying on Sunday that it does not want war with Iran but is ready to defend itself.

It comes days after mysterious sabotage attacks on several tankers in highly sensitive Gulf waters and drone strikes on a Saudi crude pipeline by Yemen rebels who Riyadh claimed were acting on Iranian orders. The US has also deployed an aircraft carrier and bombers to the Gulf over alleged threats from Iran.

King Salman invited Gulf leaders and Arab League member states to two emergency summits in Mecca on May 30 to discuss recent “aggressions and their consequences”, the kingdom’s official SPA news agency reported. Minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, said on Sunday Saudi Arabia does not want to go to war with Iran but would defend itself.

The UAE’s foreign ministry said the current circumstances require a unified Arab and Gulf stance. The meetings will be a “significant opportunity for the countries of the region to achieve their aspirations for establishing peace and stability,” it said.

The commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Gen Hossein Salami, said his country isn’t looking for war but isn’t afraid of a confrontation, either. Recent incidents have “made the extent of the enemy’s strength clear”, he said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

The US Navy said on Sunday it has conducted exercises in the Arabian Sea with an aircraft carrier strike group ordered to the Persian Gulf to counter an alleged, unspecified threat from Iran. The exercises and training were conducted with the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group in coordination with the US Marine Corps, highighting US “lethality and agility to respond to threat,” as well as to deter conflict and preserve US strategic interests, it said.

Also taking part in exercises were the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, both deployed to the US Fifth Fleet area of operations in the Persian Gulf.The Navy said the exercises, conducted on Friday and Saturday, included air-to-air training and steaming in formation and maneuvering.