Posted on 09/15/2019 4:05:31 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
Saudi and American officials are investigating the possibility that attacks on Saudi oil facilities Saturday involved cruise missiles launched from Iraq or Iran, questioning Yemeni rebel claims of responsibility, people familiar with the matter said.
Leaders of the Houthis, the Yemeni rebels whom Saudi Arabia is trying to dislodge from the country’s capital, claimed they sent a squad of drones hundreds of miles into the heart of Saudi Arabia to carry out coordinated attacks on two of the country’s vital energy sites. If true, the attacks marked the most effective and far-reaching drone strikes carried out by outgunned Houthi forces in neighboring Yemen.
But officials around the globe investigating the attack questioned the Houthi claims and suggested the strike may have come from Iraq or Iran, to the north, rather than Yemen, to the south. Iran supports a host of Shiite militias in Iraq.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet that “there is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen” and accused Tehran of launching “an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”
The Saudi Interior Ministry said Saturday that the facilities were hit by a drone attack, an account confirmed by people familiar with the strikes.
But Persian Gulf officials said experts were examining the possibility that the attackers used cruise missiles, either instead of or along with drones.
A strike on Saudi facilities from Iraq isn’t without recent precedent.
Earlier this summer, U.S. officials concluded that a May 14 drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s pipeline was launched from Iraq, not Yemen. At the time, Mr. Pompeo urged Iraq’s prime minister to contain the threat posed by Iran-backed forces in the country.
If Tehran carried out the attack directly, it would pose a new national security challenge for President Trump
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
They have nothing to gain from it. The two countries who have the most to gain from it are Russia and the US. You would be better off blaming Putin/Trump for it.
Most likely Iran with Russia helping.
When the American sanctions became unbearable, the Japanese decided to lash out and go to war.
Iran attacked Abquiq to deliver the message to Donald Trump that the sanctions must be lifted. Iranians are cowards and will never attack directly. They cower behind surrogates or in the Abquiq case, false surrogates. The question rises. How will the coalition of USA, Gulf Cooperation Council, and Israel respond. Will there be devistating sanctions on France and Germany for violating the sanctions. Will there be a kinetic attack that takes out Bandar Shapur? Will Iran be prohibited from ttending the upcoming UN meeting? Will Houthi Yemen be bombed to rubble?
You think too small, to limited
The attack was Iranian retaliation against American sanctions
Sanctions on France and Germany??? LOL. Try it.
the sanctions will be on banks fcilitating cash flow between Iran nd the French and German companies.
Trump’s second term is going to be very interesting to watch, and very unpleasant for everyone who rebuffed his peace offerings.
Bkmk
There’s another bit of irony here. Saudi Arabia has historically been one of the biggest manipulators of oil prices as part of OPEC. It’s actually funny to see a country that regularly cuts its oil output to rig prices lose so much of its production capacity in one event like this. It’s kind of like reading a news report of a notorious mob boss getting gunned down somewhere.
This validates President Trump’s wisdom in making us more energy independent.
Exactly
Would not the US or maybe Israel have ability to definitively know?
“...the idea that these wars are hyper-expensive does not stand up to scrutiny.”
Gulf War US deaths 382
Iraq War US deaths 6988
Afghanistan War US deaths 2378
So, we’ve squandered trillions of dollars and wasted the lives of 10,000 servicemen and taken ten times that many casualties and that doesn’t qualify as “hyper-expensive”? Ask the families of those who died or were wounded for this ongoing folly if they would agree with you.
Five years ago sanctions were imposed on several Russian banks. Visa and Master Card stopped supporting their credit cards and they developed their own process known as MIR. Other Russian banks picked up and MIR now serves 25,3% transactions in Russia. Visa and Master Card owned 100% or Russian market in 2014. Not only they lost billions it was also a precedent.
MIR is now expanding into East Europe, Central Asia and Middle East.
It grows it Turkey, Syria, UAE, Thailand. China is looking to adopt it as well.
Is it good for US? What if Germany and France would follow?
MIR developers are now thinking out B2B solution to supplement SWIFT.
Go on with more sanctions and it would gain momentum. What do you think would be consequences for the US financial sector and for $ for that matter?
I think I mis spoke. The sanctions are in already place and agreed by the Europeans.
The problem percieved is that German and probably french compnies surriptiously violate them. There will not be new sanctions but enforcement of existing sanctions
I doubt if every nuclear family member of a service member that was killed or wounded in any war is going to lament over the “folly” of serving. Most families are not going to fall into that trap of anti warism. Usually the loudest critic of war is someone who never served or never had a loved one serve.
Interesting analysis.
Not with Bolton but realize Iran is a danger.
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