MADE IN IRAN
Saudis display proof Tehran behind strikes
Saudi Arabian officials yesterday displayed reconstructed Iranian drones and cruise missiles from attacks on their oil fields, proving, they said, that Tehran was behind the “act of war.”
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday displayed evidence it labeled as “undeniable” proof that Iran was behind devastating attacks on two major oil facilities — the scorched remnants of missiles and drones that prompted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to call the attacks an “act of war.”
Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said 25 Iranian weapons were launched during the Saturday strikes, which cut the kingdom’s oil production in half and briefly sent crude prices soaring.
During a news conference in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, al-Malki showed reporters wreckage from some of what he said were 18 drones and seven cruise missiles used in the attacks.
The debris, laid out on a series of short platforms, included large pieces of at least one light-blue rocket with a jet engine, several partially reconstructed drones and bits of wiring and electronics.
Al-Malki said the drones were triangular “delta-wing” models and that data from their computers showed they were Iranian, the BBC reported.
He also said the missiles were “Ya Ali” models that have been used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and have a range of 435 miles.
That distance refutes claims by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels that the attacks originated in their country, al-Malki said, “despite Iran’s best effort to make it appear so.”
Al-Malki also played surveillance video that he said showed a drone approaching from the north.
“The attack was launched from the north and unquestionably sponsored by Iran,” al-Malki said.
“The evidence . . . that you have seen in front of you makes this undeniable.”
He stopped short, however, of directly alleging that the weapons were launched from inside Iran.
Eighteen drones and three missiles were deployed against Abqaiq, home to the world’s largest oil-processing plant, but the missiles all “fell short,” Al-Malki said.
Four missiles struck the oil fields at Khurais, he said.
President Trump, who began the day by ordering “substantially” strengthened sanctions on Iran, later warned that the United States could employ the “ultimate option” by declaring war on the Islamic Republic.
During a flight to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Pompeo called the airstrikes an “Iranian attack” that’s “of a scale we’ve just not seen before.”
“The Saudis were the nation that were attacked. It was on their soil. It was an act of war against them directly,” he told reporters before landing in Jeddah.
A report Tuesday said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei personally approved the airstrikes — but insisted that Iran be able to plausibly deny the attacks. CBS News said the alleged sign-off by Khamenei was revealed by a US official.
Pompeo also said US intelligence has “high confidence” that the weapons used in the attacks were not part of the Houthis’ arsenal and have not been previously deployed by the rebel group.
“Were it the case that the Houthis’ fraudulent claim was accurate, were that true — it’s not, but were that true — it doesn’t change the fingerprints of the ayatollah as having put at risk the global energy supply,” Pompeo said, referring to Khamenei.
In a tweet shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Trump said he had “just instructed [Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin] to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!”
Hours later, following the Saudi news conference, Trump told reporters that there was also “plenty of time to do some dastardly things.”
“There are many options. And there’s the ultimate option, and there are options that are a lot less than that. And we’ll see,” he said before boarding Air Force One in LA. “We’re in a very powerful position. Right now, we’re in a very, very powerful position.”
Asked if the “ultimate option” referred to a nuclear strike, Trump said it did not.
“No, I’m saying ‘the ultimate option,’ meaning go in — war,” he said.
In response to al-Malki’s presentation, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani issued a blanket denial of the allegations.
“The press conference proved that Saudi Arabia knows nothing about where the missiles and drones were made or launched from and failed to explain why the country’s defense system failed to intercept them,” Rouhani adviser Hesameddin Ashena tweeted.
TEHRAN is challenging Trump.
After attacking Saudi oil facilities, the mullahs brazenly denied having anything to do with it and said that President Trump must lift all sanctions against them if he wants them to talk with him.
How will Trump respond? Who knows? Trump says he doesn’t like starting new wars, and notwithstanding his “locked and loaded” comment, there is no sign he is going to unleash the dogs of war anytime soon.
But if the president is going to rein in the regime’s violent, destabilizing behavior and end its nuclear-weapons ambitions once and for all, he needs to step up the game.
On Wednesday he ordered the Treasury Department to slap additional sanctions on Iran.
What more — short of war — can Trump do to tame Tehran?
Right now, the administration should concentrate on three main tasks.
Task No. 1: Ratchet up the financial-pressure campaign. The key objective here is to deny Iran hard cash. The regime has major cashflow problems and is really feeling the pinch.
Suffering badly from its economic and political isolation, the regime is now flailing about — railing against the United States, threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz (through which most Middle Eastern oil transits) and risking armed confrontations right and left.
Iran has lost approximately 90 percent of its oil-export markets. Over the long term, that’s close to a death sentence for the Iranian economy. Make no mistake, the mullahs are acting up out of weakness.
Washington could — and should — crank up the pressure even more. Here’s how.
The Iran deal on nukes negotiated by the Obama administration provides that a party to the agreement can go to the UN Security Council and declare Iran in breach of the agreement. That would trigger a dispute-resolution process that culminates in a vote in the UN Security Council. Unless a majority voted to keep the deal’s sanctions relief in place, the UN sanctions would snap back.
Russia and China could not veto the measure. Iran would suddenly find itself saddled with all the UN sanctions as well as those imposed by Trump.
Sure, America is no longer a party to the Iran deal. But, guess who is? The UK, which also happens to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
If the US got Britain to take this step, Iran would really be in a bind. After all, Iran itself declared it has violated the Iran deal by accelerating its uranium-enrichment program. Task No. 2: Keep the strait open. Trump could take a page from the Reagan playbook and offer to have countries reflag their tankers with the Stars and Stripes. Iran would not want to play chicken with the US Navy in the Gulf.
Task No. 3: Support our allies. The Saturday raid was an attack on Saudi Arabia’s sovereign territory; it’s the Saudis’ responsibility to lead the response. We should support them.
That said, a while ago Trump floated the idea of a Middle East Security Architecture, a mutual collective security agreement between the United States and Gulf States. If that idea had taken off, Iran might well have been deterred from daring to attack Saudi Arabia.
Trump might put the idea of collective defense back on the table. Just restarting the discussions would remind the Iranians that the more aggressive they get, the more they tighten the noose around their own neck.
War with Iran is just about the last thing Trump wants. But he’s not going to let them run around the region like berserkers gone wild. Further, Iran knows it isn’t capable of fighting and winning a war with the United States. The mullahs are keenly aware that a major conflict with the West would spell the collapse of their regime.
Right now, the boys in Tehran might profit from a little reminder that times can get a lot worse if they don’t start acting a lot better.