US bases in range: Iran

DUBAI, Sept 15, (RTRS): An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Sunday that US bases and aircraft carriers in the region were within range of Iranian missiles after the US accused Iran of leading attacks on Saudi oil plants, raising tensions in the Middle East.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it attacked two Saudi Aramco oil plants on Saturday at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, knocking out more than half the Kingdom’s output.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of being behind the attacks, ruling out Yemeni involvement and denouncing Tehran for engaging in false diplomacy.

Pompeo, said on Twitter on Saturday that there was no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.

“Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers in a distance of up

to 2,000 kms around Iran are within the range of our missiles,” the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force Amirali Hajizadeh said on Sunday.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency also quoted him saying that “Iran has always been ready for a “full-fledged” war”, without mentioning Saturday’s attacks in Saudi Arabia.

One of the plants attacked is the world’s biggest petroleum processing facility.

US President Donald Trump told Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Washington was ready to work with the Kingdom to guarantee its security, according to the White House.

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DUBAI: Iran will adopt a policy of maximum crude production if the United States lifts sanctions on the country’s oil industry, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday.

“Maximum production would be the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum’s policy in case (US) sanctions are eased on Iran’s oil industry,” the ministry’s official news website SHANA quoted Zanganeh as saying.

Since exiting from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers last year, US President Donald Trump has reimposed sanctions on Iran. He has also introduced other limitations, including threats of sanctions against any country importing oil from Iran, causing a more than 80 percent drop in the OPEC member’s oil exports.

“Our oil industry is alive, it is active. The US sanctions cannot stop Iran’s oil exports,” Zanganeh said.