U.S. is ‘ready’ to attack over oil, says veep

Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday the U.S. is “ready” to respond militarily to the crippling attack on Saudi Arabian oil fields, and suggested Iran is to blame.

Iran’s supreme leader ruled out talks as tensions remain high in the tinderbox region.

The veep hinted American intelligence has pinpointed the Islamic Republic as the culprit in the attacks, although no evidence has been revealed that directly implicates Tehran.

“The United States of America will take whatever action is necessary to defend our country, our troops, and our allies in the Gulf. You can count on it,” Pence said in a speech at the conservative Heritage Institute.

Pence (inset) said it it “looks like” Iran carried out the weekend drone attacks that knocked out about half of Saudi oil production, but said the U.S. was still working to confirm the details.

U.S. experts were poring over the damage for clues about who fired the missiles that slammed into some of the world’s richest oil fields.

Pompeo was set to jet out to Riyadh for talks with Saudi leaders.

Iran said it wouldn’t meet with American officials until the U.S. agrees to rejoin the nuclear deal Trump dumped last year.

“This is part of their policy to put pressure on Iran,” Iranian state TV quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.

Gasoline prices jumped Tuesday after crude oil futures spiked nearly 15% in response to the attacks, although the rise might be tempered by Saudi reports that it could restore full production in weeks.

The average national gasoline price jumped 3 cents to $2.59 a gallon on Tuesday, the American Automobile Association said, with analysts anticipating a gain of roughly 10 cents to 25 cents a gallon in coming days. The attacks knocked about 5.7 million barrels of crude oil output off the market, or more than 5% of global supply.