https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f...iran-xpbdp9fcl

Freed tanker Adrian Darya 1 has sold its oil to Syria, says Iran

Iran claims that a tanker impounded in Gibraltar for six weeks has offloaded its oil in Syria, despite Britain saying it had secured written guarantees that the cargo would not be sold to the Assad regime.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not commented on the apparent breach of the agreement under which the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya 1, which was called Grace 1 when it was seized by Royal Marines in July, was freed last month. British officials may be awaiting further confirmation. Although an Iranian government spokesman confirmed claims by state media that the vessel had sold and transferred its 2.1 million barrels of crude oil......

There were also signs that Iran was keeping the other half of its agreement. The spokesman said paperwork was being completed for the release of the Stena Impero, a Swedish-owned, British-flagged tanker seized in the Gulf in what was taken to be a tit-for-tat move later in July......

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........

The brink of war?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i...ikes-jnm9cz9kb

Iran and US on brink over attack on oil sites

Iran and the US have threatened each other with military action following a huge attack on Saudi oil facilities, bringing tensions in the Gulf region to boiling point.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, blamed Tehran for the drone attacks on two facilities, even though they have been claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and warned that Iran would be “held accountable for its aggression”. Soon after, Amirali Hajizadeh, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force, said that any US bases or aircraft carriers within a 2,000-mile radius of Iran could be targeted by its missiles and that Tehran has prepared itself for “fully-fledged war”.

The attacks on the Abqaiq and Khurais installations, 118 miles apart in eastern Saudi Arabia, early yesterday sparked raging fires and have halved Saudi Arabia’s oil output — which totals 5 per cent of the world’s supply — to 5.7 million barrels daily. The blazes broke out at around 4am local time and have since been brought under control, but satellite images show acrid black clouds covering a huge area around the facilities in the hours after the attacks.......

Saudi Arabia has not commented on who it believes to be behind the strikes, although Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi energy minister who was newly appointed to the role last week, described it as a “terrorist attack” which “threatens the world economy”. But Mr Pompeo said there is “no evidence” that the attacks were orchestrated by the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran in their fight against the government of Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and had in fact been arranged directly from Tehran. His comments have quashed hopes of the thaw in US-Iran relations which had been anticipated following the resignation of John Bolton as national security adviser last week.

Iran has hit back against Mr Pompeo’s claim that it was behind the attacks, with Abbas Mousavi, the foreign ministry spokesman, claiming the accusation was part of Washington’s policy of “maximum falsification”. Mr Mousavi also described Mr Pompeo’s tweets as “blind and abortive comments that are obscure and meaningless within a diplomatic framework” and accused Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which is supporting the internationally-recognised government, of “fuelling the flames of war”.

Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican, raised the temperature further, tweeting: “Iran will not stop their misbehaviour until the consequences become more real, like attacking their refineries, which will break the regime’s back.” “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,” he added........

President Trump spoke to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia by telephone last night and confirmed the US’s readiness to “cooperate with the Kingdom, by all means conducive to maintain its security and stability”, according to a report in the official Saudi Press Agency. The UK’s foreign office condemned the strikes as “dangerous, provocative and completely unacceptable”. There have so far been no reported casualties or injuries.........

Riyadh is now scrambling to restore its output and stem the damage to its economy.........

None of this would be happening if Trump/Pompeo had not violated the 2015 nuc agreement. Pompeo said there is no evidence the Houthis did the attack, that also means no evidence Iran did it either. If it was the Houthis they do have the right to fight back against the US aided war the Saudis are waging against them.