Linked to the Yemen thread....
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...l-yemen-houthi
Pompeo: Iran behind attack on Saudi oil facilities that will reduce kingdom's output
The US secretary of state,
Mike Pompeo, has accused Iran of being responsible for attacks on Saudi oil plants that could lead to the temporary loss of more than 5% of global oil supply.
Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in
Yemen claimed responsibility for Saturday’s drone attack. But Pompeo, Donald Trump’s top diplomat, blamed the attacks squarely on Iran writing on Twitter that there was “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen”.
“Amid all the calls for de-escalation,
Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo said. “Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on
Saudi Arabia while [President Hassan] Rouhani and [foreign minister Javad] Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy,” he said.
According to a statement from the state-run oil producer Saudi Aramco, the attacks on the Abqaiq facility will cut the kingdom’s production by about 5.7m barrels per day, more than half of Saudi Arabia’s output. Saudi is the world’s largest exporter of crude oil.
The US Energy Department said on Saturday it was ready to release oil from its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) if needed. “Oil prices will jump on this attack, and if the disruption to Saudi production is prolonged, an SPR release ... seems likely and sensible,” said Jason Bordoff, founding director of the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York.......
Responding to Pompeo’s tweet on Saturday, the Democratic senator Chris Murphy, a member of the foreign relations committee, wrote: “This is such irresponsible simplification and it’s how we get into dumb wars of choice. “The Saudis and Houthis are at war. The Saudis attack the Houthis and the Houthis attack back. Iran is backing the Houthis and has been a bad actor, but it’s just not as simple as Houthis = Iran.”
he Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Trump ally, disagreed. “It is now time for the US to put on the table an attack on Iranian oil refineries if they continue their provocations or increase nuclear enrichment,” the South Carolina senator said on Twitter........