Saudi oil attacks: US will help allies
‘LOCKED AND LOADED’ President Trump promises to supply oil to US allies and hints at military action; Houthi rebels threaten new attacks on Saudi
WASHINGTON/RIYADH: President Donald Trump on Monday promised to supply oil to US allies, after attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure that he blamed on Iran.
“We a r e a n e t E n e r g y Exporter, & now the Number One Energy Producer in the World,” Trump tweeted. “We don’t need Middle Eastern Oil & Gas, & in fact have very few tankers there, but will help our Allies!” Trump tweeted.
He questioned Iran’s claim that it had nothing to do with the weekend attacks on a giant oil plant in Saudi Arabia that have cut off 5% of global crude output.
“Remember when Iran shot down a drone, saying knowingly that it was in their ‘airspace’ when, in fact, it was nowhere close. They stuck strongly to that story knowing that it was a very big lie. Now they say that they had nothing to do with the attack on Saudi Arabia. We’ll see?” Trump wrote in another tweet.
On Sunday, Trump warned that the US was “locked and loaded” to respond to the Saturday attacks. It is the first time the president has hinted at a potential American military response to the drone strikes.
“There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”, Trump said.
US energy secretary Rick Perry pinned the blame squarely on Iran for “an attack on the global economy and the global energy market”.
“The United States wholeheartedly condemns Iran’s attack on Saudi Arabia and we call on other nations to do the same,” he said in a speech to an annual meeting in Vienna of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA. He added that he was confident the oil market “is resilient and will respond positively”.
Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bogged down in a fiveyear war, had claimed responsibility for the attack. On Monday, they threatened to carry out more strikes and urged foreigners to stay away. “We assure the Saudi regime that our long hand can reach any place we want at any time we choose,” Houthi military spokesman Brigadier Yahya Saree said in a statement.
The US is considering increasing its intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia after the attack, said US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia has shut down its crude oil pipeline to Bahrain after attacks on its oil facilities, two trade sources told Reuters. The pipeline, which carries 220,000-230,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arab Light crude from state oil company Saudi Aramco to Bahrain’s Bapco, was closed after Saturday’s attack reduced output of mainly light crude grades, one of the sources said. Bapco is working to secure vessels to bring in about 2 million barrels of Saudi crude as a result of the pipeline shutdown, the sources said.
Iraq said on Monday it had been told by the US that Washington did not suspect an attack on Saudi Arabia had been launched from Iraqi territory.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo had told Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi by phone “the information they have confirms the Iraqi government’s statement that its territory was not used to carry out this attack,” the Iraqi government said.
Some US officials are investigating whether missiles were actually launched from Iraq or Iran, but Baghdad had denied its t erri t ory was used f or t he strikes. Prime Minister Mahdi told Pompeo that Baghdad’s aim was to “prohibit Iraqi territory being used to wage attacks against any neighbouring, brotherly or friendly country”.
Iraq is home to several Iranbacked militias and paramilitary factions, placing it in an awkward situation amid rising tensions between its two main sponsors, Tehran and Washington. Iraq has called for its territory to be spared any spillover in the standoff between the US and Iran.