Pompeo says attack on oil an ‘act of war’
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil installations an “act of war” against the kingdom by Iran, as the Saudis displayed missile and drone wreckage and cited other evidence they said shows the raid was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran.”
Iran, which has denied involvement in the attack, warned the U.S. it will retaliate immediately if it is targeted.
President Trump, meanwhile, said he is moving to increase financial sanctions on Tehran because of the attack. He was noncommittal on whether he would order U.S. military retaliation.
At a news conference, Saudi military spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said the attack Saturday that did heavy damage to the heart of the Saudi oil industry was “launched from the north and was unquestionably sponsored by Iran.” Yemen is south of Saudi Arabia, while Iran and Iraq lie to the north.
Al-Malki stopped short of accusing Iran of actually firing the weapons itself or launching them from Iranian territory.
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in response to the Saudi-led war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of people.
At the news conference, the Saudis displayed broken and burned drones and pieces of a cruise missile that Al-Malki identified as Iranian weapons collected after the attack. He also played surveillance video that he said showed a drone coming in from the north.
Eighteen drones and seven cruise missiles were launched in the assault, AlMalki said, with three missiles failing to make their targets. He said the cruise missiles had a range of 435 miles, meaning they could not have been fired from inside Yemen.
“This is the kind of weapon the Iranian regime and the Iranian IRGC are using against the civilian object and facilities infrastructure,” Al-Malki said, referring to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He added: “This attack did not originate from Yemen, despite Iran’s best effort to make it appear so.”
Pompeo, who landed in Saudi Arabia shortly after the news conference, took a harder line, telling reporters: “The Saudis were the nation that was attacked. It was on their soil. It was an act of war against them directly.”