MP claims 16 missiles flew over Kuwait; army on alert
Riyadh blames Iran, displays debris • Trump tightens curbs • Houthis threaten UAE
KUWAIT/RIYADH: Leading opposition lawmaker Shuaib Al-Muwaizri said yesterday that as many as 16 missiles flew over Kuwait’s airspace on their way to hit oil installations in neighboring Saudi Arabia. The missiles, believed to be cruise missiles, flew over Kuwait without being detected by the country’s air defenses and that some of them fell in the desert and the rest hit the Saudi oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais, knocking out more than half of the kingdom’s oil production, Muwaizri, a former cabinet minister, told reporters in the Assembly.
Late yesterday, the Kuwaiti army chief of staff said yesterday the state of combat readiness of some army units has been raised as part of precautionary measures taken in such circumstances. “This announcement comes in order to preserve the security of the country and the safety of its land, water and airspace from any possible dangers in direct and permanent coordination with all military and security authorities in the country,” the army chief of staff said in a press release.
It added what was seen or heard yesterday was part of those measures through the implementation of live exercises by the marine and air force from 1:30 pm to 5 pm in the afternoon. It called on the public not to pay attention to any information or rumors circulated from any source except official sources represented by the directorate of moral guidance and public relations.
Muwaizri strongly lashed out at the government, specifically the defense and foreign ministries, and held the respective ministers responsible for this serious failure. Muwaizri said the reason air defenses did not spot the missiles is because an important military balloon was destroyed two years ago as a result of colliding with an aircraft belonging to a private airline. “Kuwait is exposed. Where are the billions spent on armaments” in the previous years, the lawmaker asked.
Muwaizri said the destruction of the balloon has harmed national security, but until this moment, the justice ministry has not yet released the investigation report into the case. The lawmaker however did not say where the missiles came from, but it is clear they could have been fired either from Iran or Iraq. The United States has blamed Iran for the attacks on Saudi oil installations amid reports that blamed pro-Iran Shiite militias in south Iraq to have fired the missiles. Iran-backed Yemen Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility but Saudi Arabia did not accuse them.
Muwaizri criticized the failure of the government and wondered what would’ve happened if the any of the missiles had crashed over Kuwaiti residential areas, saying the defense minister should be held responsible for the incident. The government on Sunday said security officials have launched an investigation into reports that a drone was seen flying over Salmiya and Bidaa coast and over HH the Amir’s residential palace in Salwa. The lawmaker said the issue should not be allowed to pass without a proper investigation and necessary actions.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said yesterday that strikes on its oil infrastructure were “unquestionably” sponsored by Iran, adding that the strikes originated from the north
but the exact launch site was yet to be pinned down. It displayed what it said were fragments of the arsenal of 18 drones and seven cruise missiles that devastated two facilities in the country’s east, knocking out half the kingdom’s oil production. “The attack was launched from the north and unquestionably sponsored by Iran,” defense ministry spokesman Turki Al-Maliki told a press conference. “We are working to know the exact launch point.”
However, he would not be drawn on whether Saudi Arabia believed that Iran would ultimately be found to be the culprit, only saying they were confident they would find where the weapons were fired from. Diplomats at the United Nations said experts were expected in the kingdom to lead an international inquiry. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has directly blamed Iran for the strikes, was due to hold talks yesterday with Saudi leadership as he arrived in Jeddah to weigh with the US allies a response to the strike that roiled global energy markets.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have claimed Saturday’s strikes, vowed meanwhile they had the means to hit “dozens of targets” in the United Arab Emirates. Saudi’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a phone call the kingdom wants an international investigation that would be seen as highly credible, the state news agency SPA reported. President Donald Trump - who has already re-imposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy - yesterday promised to “substantially increase” the measures, winning quick praise from Riyadh.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the administration has concluded that the attack involved cruise missiles from Iran and that evidence would be presented at the UN General Assembly next week. “As the president said, we don’t want war with anybody, but the United States is prepared,” Vice President Mike Pence said in a speech in Washington on Tuesday.
The apparent hardening of the US position came as Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out negotiations with Washington “at any level”. That appeared to nix remaining hopes for a dramatic meeting between President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations next week. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said he too had cooled on what had always seemed to be a diplomatic longshot. “I never rule anything out, but I prefer not meeting him,” Trump said.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are locked in a prolonged conflict with a Saudi-led military coalition, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s oil installation attacks, which took out six percent of global supplies. But Riyadh and Washington have both ruled that out. “Despite Iran’s efforts to make it appear so” they did not originate from Yemen, Maliki said, adding the strike was beyond the capabilities of the militia - who have however mounted dozens of smaller attacks on Saudi territory. “The precision impact of the cruise missile indicated advance capability beyond (Iranian) proxy capacity,” he said, adding that they also struck from a direction that ruled out its southern neighbor Yemen as a source.
The Houthis yesterday threatened to attack dozens of targets in the United Arab Emirates, including in the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. “We announce... that we have dozens of targets in the UAE, among them Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and that they can be targeted at any moment,” Houthi military spokesman Brigadier Yahya Saree said. The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Huthis in Yemen in an intractable five-year conflict that has devastated the country.
“If you want peace and security for your facilities, and towers made of glass that cannot withstand one drone, then leave Yemen alone,” the rebel spokesman said. The Huthis have made threats against the UAE in the past, and claimed strikes that were never confirmed by the Emirati authorities. “To the Emirati regime, we say that just one operation will cost you a lot,” Saree said. “You will regret it if your leadership decides to issue instructions to its armed forces to launch any response in the coming days or weeks,” Saree said.
Observers say the experience in Yemen, where despite their vast firepower, the Saudis have failed to subdue the ragtag but highly motivated militia, has made Riyadh circumspect about wading into another conflict. “I certainly hope we’re not (going to have another war),” Riyadh’s ambassador to London Prince Khalid bin Bandar told the BBC in an interview. “We are trying not to react too quickly because the last thing we need is more conflict in the region,” he said.