Josie Ensor – The Telegraph Sept 19, 2019

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran does no want war but is ready for “all-out war” if necessary. Click to enlarge

Air raid sirens were tested across the Saudi Arabian capital on Thursday as the country prepared for a possible escalation with Iran, following a weekend attack on its oil fields raised the stakes in the conflict.

Text messages were sent out to residents ahead of the 1pm tests in Riyadh and neighbouring provinces, which civil defence said was to ensure the sirens were “effective and ready.”

The US and Saudi are considering their response to Saturday’s assault on key oil facilities which left the kingdom reeling.

Asked whether military retaliation was being considered, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi’s ambassador to Germany, said “everything is on the table.”

Donald Trump, the US president, has struck a more cautious note, saying there were many options short of war with Iran.

He said there was “plenty of time to do some dastardly things . . . We’ll see what happens.”

The Trump administration has reportedly been briefed on a number of possible options for retaliatory action against Iran, which is believed to be behind the assault, including a cyberattack or physical strike on Iranian oil facilities or Revolutionary Guard Corp assets.

“The US stands with Saudi Arabia and supports its right to defend itself,” Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, tweeted from Jeddah following a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Mr Pompeo said the attack on the world’s largest oil processing plant and knocked out half of Saudi’s production, was “of a scale we’ve just not seen before”.

“The Iranian regime’s threatening behavior will not be tolerated,” he added.

Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, said any US or Saudi military strike against Iran would result in “all-out war”.

“‘Act of war’ or agitation for war?” he said in a tweet. “For their own sake, they should pray that they won’t get what they seek.”

In an interview later with CNN, he said: “I am making a very serious statement that we don’t want war; we don’t want to engage in a military confrontation… But we won’t blink to defend our territory.”

Riyadh, which said it is still investigating the assault, on Wednesday displayed the remnants of 25 Iranian drones and missiles it said were used in the strike as undeniable evidence of Iranian aggression.

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