Outrage as Houthis target Saudi Aramco facilities
▶ Recent Houthi attacks across Saudi Arabia pose a threat to the entire global energy system
Saudi Arabia intercepted missile and drone attacks on its oil facilities in Eastern Province on Sunday, attempted strikes that were claimed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The kingdom’s Ministry of Energy said a drone attack on a petroleum plant at Ras Tanura port was thwarted that morning, while a missile was intercepted near an Aramco housing complex in Dhahran, about 80 kilometres to the south, in the evening.
There were no injuries reported in either attack, a ministry spokesman said.
“The attacking, bomb-laden UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] was intercepted and destroyed prior to reaching its target,” the ministry said.
“The ballistic missile that was launched to target Aramco facilities in Dhahran was intercepted and destroyed as well. The interception resulted in scattered debris that fell in proximity to civilians.”
The Houthis said on Twitter that they had fired drones and missiles at Ras Tanura and military targets in the area of Dammam, which is close to Dhahran.
The sites attacked on Sunday are part of the oil infrastructure on Saudi Arabia’s Arabian Gulf coast, which was also attacked by drones and missiles in September 2019.
That attack damaged oil-processing facilities at Buqaiq, near Dhahran, and the Khurais oilfield further inland, and temporarily disabled half of Saudi Arabia’s oil output.
The defence ministry said Sunday’s attacks were aimed at “the backbone of the world economy, oil supplies and global energy security”.
The ministry said it would “undertake all necessary measures to safeguard its national assets in a manner that preserves the security of global energy, puts an end to these acts of terrorism, guarantees the security and stability of oil supplies, protects security of petroleum exports and safeguards freedom of shipping and international trade”.
Countries in the region said the thwarted attack violated international norms and laws and would affect the security and stability of energy supplies.
They called on the international community to condemn such terrorist actions.
“This cowardly attack targeted energy supplies and security, and reflected the Houthis’ blatant disregard for the international community and all international laws and norms,” the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation said in a statement released through the official Wam news agency.
“The security of the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are indivisible,” the ministry said, and any threat to Saudi Arabia was considered a threat to the UAE’s security and stability.
Bahrain condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation of international laws, and a serious threat to energy supplies and the global economy”.
Kuwait said the terrorist crimes represented a major escalation of violence.
The country denounced the international community’s “silence in the face of these despicable actions”.
Qatar said it considered the targeting of vital installations and facilities an act of sabotage.
The GCC said such terrorist attacks “strike at the pulse of the global economy and energy supplies to the world”.
The Houthis have increased attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent weeks during an offensive to seize the Yemeni government’s last northern stronghold of Marib.
The Saudi-led Arab Coalition supporting the Yemeni government reported intercepting more than 20 drones and missiles launched at civilian targets in the kingdom’s south over the past week.
US President Joe Biden has made clear his desire to resolve the many tensions in the Middle East primarily through diplomacy.
The new administration in Washington faces no greater threat to this ambition than the government that sits in Iran. In its perpetual standoff with the US in the region, Tehran has, in recent days, dangerously raised the stakes yet again.
In the past week alone, Saudi Arabia has intercepted more than 20 drone and missile attacks aimed at civilian targets. The attacks were claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group that rules over Sanaa. On Sunday, one was aimed at a petroleum plant at the Saudi port of Ras Tunara. Another was directed at a housing complex operated by Aramco, the national oil company, in Dhahran, 80 kilometres south.
No one was killed or injured in Sunday’s strikes, but the barrage has drawn comparisons with drone assaults on major oil installations in the kingdom in September 2019. Those attacks briefly suspended more than half of Saudi Arabia’s oil output. At the time, many were quick to point out that this was not just an attack on the nation, but one on the entire global energy system.
The disruption in energy markets and the impact on the price of oil as a result of Sunday’s events were not nearly as severe. But they certainly highlighted once again the danger posed by the instability Iran-funded militant groups seek to foment.
Tehran’s steady incorporation of the Houthis into its network of proxies in the region allows it to co-ordinate a targeted strategy against Washington and several Arab states across many fronts. It senses a US administration that is in a rush to pursue deals to end the Yemen conflict and secure a return to the nuclear agreement signed by president Barack Obama in 2015, despite potentially high strategic costs.
To exploit this, Tehran choreographs a surge of destabilising activity.
Saudi Arabia is not alone in being on the receiving end of this aggression. Iraq has recently seen a series of lethal missile attacks against its institutions, as well as targets associated with western presence in the country. In the most recent of these, last Wednesday, a US civilian contractor was killed.
Innocent individuals have become caught up, too. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman, who has been held in prison in Iran on trumpedup charges since 2016, is the victim of a particularly cruel instance of hostage diplomacy. Yesterday, the long-awaited end of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s five-year sentence was announced, but was followed quickly by the announcement of a new court date on which she will face different charges.
As this chain of abuses grows longer, the US, in its hurry to realise preferential deals, should understand what its regional allies have been saying for a long time: that it is not dealing with a reasonable partner in Tehran. It is, rather, dealing with one that is using chaos as a tool, on whatever scale possible, to achieve its aims.