{"id":194921,"date":"2019-09-17T06:46:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T06:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=194921"},"modified":"2019-09-20T07:11:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T07:11:58","slug":"us-defense-failure-why-washington-has-to-blame-iran-over-saudi-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=194921","title":{"rendered":"US defense failure\u2026 Why Washington has to blame Iran over Saudi attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finian Cunningham \u2013 RT Sept 16, 2019<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Abqaiq processing facility ablaze. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The devastating blitz on Saudi Arabia\u2019s oil industry has led to a flurry of accusations from US officials blaming Iran. The reason for the finger-pointing is simple: Washington\u2019s spectacular failure to protect its Saudi ally.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump administration needs to scapegoat Iran for the latest military assault on Saudi Arabia because to acknowledge that the Houthi rebels mounted such an audacious assault on the oil kingdom\u2019s heartland would be an admission of American inadequacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars in recent years purchasing US Patriot missile defense systems and supposedly cutting-edge radar technology from the Pentagon. If the Yemeni rebels can fly combat drones up to 1,000 kilometers into Saudi territory and knock out the linchpin production sites in the kingdom\u2019s oil industry, then that should be a matter of huge embarrassment for US \u201cprotectors<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

American defense of Saudi Arabia is germane to their historical relationship. Saudi oil exports nominated in dollars for trade \u2013 the biggest on the planet \u2013 are vital for maintaining the petrodollar global market, which is in turn crucial for American economic power. In return, the US is obligated to be a protector of the Saudi monarchy, which comes with the lucrative added benefit of selling the kingdom weapons worth billions of dollars every year.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Saudi Arabia has the world\u2019s third biggest military budget, behind the US and China. With an annual spend of around $68 billion, it is the world\u2019s number one in terms of percentage of gross domestic product (8.8 per cent). Most of the Saudi arms are sourced from the US, with Patriot missile systems in particular being a recent big-ticket item.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet for all that financial largesse and the finest American military technology, the oil kingdom just witnessed a potentially crippling wave of air assaults on its vital oil industry. Saudi oil production at its mammoth refinery complex at Abqaiq, 205 miles (330 kms) east of the capital Riyadh, was down 50 per cent after it was engulfed by flames following air strikes. One of the Saudi\u2019s biggest oilfields, at Khurais, also in the Eastern Province, was also partially closed.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are credible reports<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>that the damage is much more serious than the Saudi officials are conceding. These key industrial sites may take weeks to repair.<\/span><\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got it half right when he claimed, \u201cIran launched an unprecedented attack on the world\u2019s energy supply<\/em>\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, it is unprecedented. But Pompeo and other US officials have most likely got it wrong about blaming Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some Trump administration officials told<\/a><\/strong><\/span> US media that \u201ccruise missiles<\/em>\u201d were responsible for the giant fireballs seen over the Saudi oil facilities. One was quoted anonymously as saying: \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that Iran is responsible for this\u2026 there\u2019s no escaping it. There is no other candidate<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a hurried effort to substantiate accusations against Iran, satellite images were released which show what appears to be the aftermath of the air strike on the Abqaiq refinery complex. US officials claim the location of the explosions indicate the weapons originated not from Yemen to the south, but from either Iran or Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the normally dutiful New York Times expressed doubt about that claim, commenting<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>in its report: \u201cThe satellite photographs released on Sunday did not appear as clear cut as officials suggested, with some appearing to show damage on the western side of facilities, not from the direction of Iran or Iraq<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The accusations made by Pompeo and others are assertions in place of substantiated claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is noteworthy that President Donald Trump refrained from openly blaming Iran by name, merely hinting at the possibility. If Pompeo is so adamant in fingering Iran, why didn\u2019t Trump? Also, the president made a telling remark when he said he was \u201cwaiting for verification\u201d from Saudi Arabia \u201cas to who they believe was the cause of the attack<\/em>.\u201d Again, if US officials are explicitly accusing Iran then why is Trump saying he wants \u201cverification<\/em>\u201d from the Saudis?<\/span><\/p>\n

For its part, Iran has flatly dismissed the allegations that it had any involvement, saying that statements by Pompeo were \u201cblind<\/em>\u201d and tantamount to setting up a conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi also rejected claims that his country\u2019s territory might have been used by pro-Iranian Shia militants to launch the air strikes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Houthi rebels in Yemen have issued unambiguous statements claiming<\/a> responsibility for the air raids on the Saudi oil installations. They were specific that the weapons were drones, not missiles, adding with details that 10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were deployed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notably too, most US media reported<\/a><\/strong><\/span> initially that the attacks were by drones flown from Yemen. Associated Press reported<\/a><\/strong><\/span> a level of sophistication in the attacks whereby drones were used first to disable the US Patriot radar systems before other UAVs proceeded to execute the air strikes.<\/span><\/p>\n

It therefore seems that US officials are attempting to switch the story by blaming Iran. It is reckless scapegoating because the logical consequence could elicit a military attack against Iran, in which event Tehran has warned it is ready for war.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rationale for blaming Iran is that the Yemeni rebels (which Iran supports politically) are just not capable of using drones with such dramatic success against the Saudi oil industry. The culprit must be Iran, so the rationale goes. This is a follow-on from alleged sabotage by Iran against oil tankers in the Persian Gulf earlier this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, a timeline<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>shows that the Houthis are more than capable of launching ever-more powerful ballistic missiles and deeper penetrating drones into Saudi territory. The rebels have been using drones from the beginning of the war which the US-backed Saudi-UAE coalition launched on the southern Arabian country in March 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past four years, the Houthi aerial firepower has gradually improved. Earlier, the Saudis, with American defense systems, were able to intercept drones and missiles from Yemen. But over the last year, the rebels have increased their success rate for hitting targets in the Saudi interior, including the capital Riyadh.<\/span><\/p>\n

In May this year, Houthi drones hit Saudi Arabia\u2019s crucial east-west pipeline. Then in August, drones and ballistic missiles were reported to have struck the Shaybah oil field near the border with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as the Dammam exporting complex in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Eastern Province.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If US \u201cprotectors\u201d cannot protect their rich Saudi clients with all the expensive weapons they’ve sold them, then obviously Iran was to blame<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194921"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194929,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194921\/revisions\/194929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}