U.S. weighs response to attack on Saudi oil

Officials say photos point to Iran as culprit

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as the U.S. released new evidence to back up its allegation that Iran was responsible for the assault.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted, “There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”

The tweet followed a National Security Council meeting at the White House that included Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

A U.S. official said all options, including a military response, were on the table but that no decisions had been made Sunday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.

Hours earlier, senior U.S. officials said satellite imagery and other intelligence showed the strike was inconsistent with one launched from Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had claimed responsibility.

Iran, meanwhile, called the U.S. claims “maximum lies,” while a commander in its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reiterated that its forces could strike U.S.

restrictions to advance in a generation.

“This morning, we made it clear to the president that any proposal he endorses that does not include the Housepassed universal background checks legislation will not get the job done, as dangerous loopholes will still exist and people who shouldn’t have guns will still have access,” Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schumer, D-N.Y., said in their statement.

Pelosi and Schumer said they promised Trump that if he endorses the House legislation on background checks and gets Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to act on it, they would join the president “for a historic signing ceremony at the Rose Garden.” Their call with Trump on Sunday morning lasted about 10 minutes, according to a Democratic aide.

A White House spokesman, Judd Deere, confirmed that Trump spoke with the Democratic leaders at their request and indicated to them a desire to find a “bipartisan legislative solution” but made no commitments.

“The conversation was cordial,” Deere said. “The president reiterated his commitment for his administration to continue work on these issues.”

In February, Trump issued

a veto threat for H.R. 8, the expanded background checks bill passed by the House, arguing that it would “impose burdensome requirements on certain firearm transactions” and that it was “incompatible with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of an individual right to keep arms.”

McConnell, R-Ky., has declined to hold a vote on the bill, which was approved by the Democratic-controlled House in February. He says it’s not clear the Senate would be able to pass the legislation or that Trump would sign it into law.

In an exchange with reporters at the Capitol last week, McConnell accused Schumer of a “stunt” after the Democrat called on the Senate to take up the gun bill, which McConnell noted “the president already said he is going to veto.”

“My members know the very simple fact that to make a law you have to have a presidential signature. … And so, we do, in fact, await word from the White House about what the president is willing to sign,” McConnell said.

In their statement, Pelosi and Schumer touted the House-passed gun measures as “bipartisan, commonsense legislation to expand background checks, which is supported by more than 90 percent of the American people.”

“Yet, for 200 days, Senator McConnell has refused to give these bipartisan bills a vote on the Senate Floor, again and again putting his own political survival before the survival of our children. … We will not stop until these bills are passed and our children’s lives are safe,” they said.

The House bills would expand background checks to cover private sales such as one that allowed a Texas shooting suspect to purchase his weapon before killing seven people last month.

Trump and White House aides have discussed a number of gun-control measures with members of Congress, including steps to go after fraudulent buyers, notify state and local law enforcement when a potential buyer fails a background check, issue state-level emergency risk protection orders, boost mental health assistance and speed up executions for those found guilty of committing mass shootings.

After back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, in early August, the White House initiated bipartisan talks with senators to determine what, if any, gun bills they might work on together. Aides to Trump presented the president with his options last week, but the White House has not said precisely what Trump is considering.

The talks have included discussion of the so-called Manchin-Toomey bill, a bipartisan Senate measure named for its chief sponsors, Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Patrick Toomey, R-Pa. That bill is not as far-reaching as the House measure; it would extend background checks only for commercial sales, not for private sales, and includes some exemptions for friends and family members.

Senators participating in the talks say they also have included consideration of “red flag” legislation, which would make it easier for law enforcement to take guns from people deemed dangerous by a judge. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is working on such a bill in the Senate.

In arguing for the background checks bill, Schumer and Pelosi said people subject to such orders might still be able to purchase firearms if the background checks system is not expanded. They vowed in their statement to “accelerate a relentless drumbeat of action to force Senator McConnell to pass our background checks bills.”