Saturday saw attacks on several oil facilities in Saudi Arabia that the Wall Street Journal reports shut down half of the country’s crude production. In response, President Donald Trump has promised to take action.
“Saudi Arabia[‘s] oil supply was attacked,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, [and we] are locked and loaded depending on verification, but [we] 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!”
Trump went on to say that in light of the attack’s potential “impact on oil prices,” he has “authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, in a to-be-determined amount sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied.”
“I have also informed all appropriate agencies to expedite approvals of the oil pipelines currently in the permitting process in Texas and various other [s]tates,” the president said.
“Locked and loaded”
While Trump himself has hesitated to place blame on any particular country for the attacks, which initial reports alleged were launched by Yemeni rebels, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pointed to Iran as the culprit.
“Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while [Iran President Hassan] Rouhani and [Iran Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad] Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen,” Pompeo declared on Twitter.
He went on to call for nations around the world to “publicly and unequivocally condemn” the attacks.
“The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression,” Pompeo said.
Iranian aggression?
Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have simmered for decades, with the 1979 Iranian Revolution bringing a fundamentalist Shiite government to power that was at odds with Saudi Arabia’s Sunni ruling family.
Saudi Arabia also backed Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and the two countries have often fought via proxy forces.
For its part, Iran is sponsoring Houthi rebels in Yemen as they fight both the Yemeni government and the Saudi military. The Houthis have claimed responsibility for this most recent terrorist attacks, but U.S. officials like Pompeo insist that Iran is the real culprit, according to The Jerusalem Post.
This latest incident comes just days before a United Nations General Assembly meeting, The Washington Post reports. It will be Trump’s first time chairing a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, and according to a source who spoke with CBS News, “all eyes are on Trump.”
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