{"id":195005,"date":"2019-09-19T06:26:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T06:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=195005"},"modified":"2019-09-22T07:08:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T07:08:56","slug":"saudi-offers-proof-of-irans-role-in-oil-attack-and-urges-us-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=195005","title":{"rendered":"Saudi offers proof of Iran&#8217;s role in oil attack and urges US response"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Introduction \u2013 Sept 18, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h5>As has been<span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"> <a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/05\/houthi-drone-attacks-saudi-show-level-sophistication-190515055550113.html\">pointed out elsewhere<\/a><\/span>, Houthi rebels have shown themselves to be remarkably adept in using drones against Saudi infrastructure.<\/h5>\n<h5>The display of drone wreckage by the Saudis, below, proves little however. While the Iranians have undoubtedly been supplying the Houthi rebels with basic ordnance the rebels themselves have also been producing their own drones, some of them quite sophisticated.<\/h5>\n<h5>Crucially, at one point during the press briefing below the Saudi spokesman admitted that \u201cthe missiles may have come from Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels\u201d, exactly as Iran and the Houthis assert.<\/h5>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dmqIgCIS6xg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<h5>In the past year Houthi drones have repeatedly struck the Saudis or their allies. In January this year Houthi drones killed six government troops at the <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-middle-east-46822429\">al-Anad base in Yemen<\/a><\/span>.<\/h5>\n<h5>In August Houthi drones<span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"> <a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/uk.reuters.com\/article\/uk-yemen-saudi-oil-attack\/houthi-drone-attack-on-saudi-oilfield-causes-gas-fire-output-unaffected-idUKKCN1V705T\">struck Saudi oil fields<\/a><\/span>, although damage was limited in that attack.<\/h5>\n<h5>So while the Iranians may supply them with basic ordnance, Houthi rebels are more than capable of launching drone strikes without any Iranian assistance.<\/h5>\n<h5>In other words, claims that Iran was behind the attacks on the Saudi oil facility don\u2019t stand up to scrutiny. The trouble is, they don\u2019t have to. If Trump and his hawkish allies want to justify strikes on Iran they will, no matter how unconvincing the evidence. Ed.<\/h5>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Saudi offers proof of Iran&#8217;s role in oil attack and urges US response<\/h1>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Patrick Wintour \u2013 The Guardian Sept 18, 2019<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_195006\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lt-Col-Turki-al-dash-Maliki-displays-pieces-of-what-he-says-were-Iranian-drones-and-missiles-recovered-from-the-attack-sites.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-195006\" class=\"wp-image-195006\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lt-Col-Turki-al-dash-Maliki-displays-pieces-of-what-he-says-were-Iranian-drones-and-missiles-recovered-from-the-attack-sites-768x461.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lt-Col-Turki-al-dash-Maliki-displays-pieces-of-what-he-says-were-Iranian-drones-and-missiles-recovered-from-the-attack-sites-768x461.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lt-Col-Turki-al-dash-Maliki-displays-pieces-of-what-he-says-were-Iranian-drones-and-missiles-recovered-from-the-attack-sites-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lt-Col-Turki-al-dash-Maliki-displays-pieces-of-what-he-says-were-Iranian-drones-and-missiles-recovered-from-the-attack-sites-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Lt-Col-Turki-al-dash-Maliki-displays-pieces-of-what-he-says-were-Iranian-drones-and-missiles-recovered-from-the-attack-sites.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-195006\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lt Col Turki al-Maliki displays pieces of what he says were Iranian drones and missiles recovered from the attack sites. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Saudi Arabia has ramped up the pressure on Donald Trump to respond to a devastating strike on two major oil installations, by displaying drone and missile technology it insisted showed the attack was \u201cunquestionably sponsored by Iran\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A Saudi defence spokesman at a high-profile press conference claimed that a total of 25 drones and cruise missiles were used in the attack on the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/aramco\">Aramco<\/a><\/strong><\/span> facilities on Saturday, saying repeatedly they had been fired from the north, the direction of Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Saudi move came on a day when:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Trump asked the US Treasury to expand sanctions on <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/iran\">Iran<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">President <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/hassan-rouhani\">Hassan Rouhani<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of Iran insisted the attack had been carried out by Houthi rebels in Yemen, and threatened to respond to any US military attacks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Houthis held their own press conference to substantiate their claim of responsibility.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">And Trump discussed the crisis by phone with Boris Johnson, agreeing on \u201cthe need for a united diplomatic response\u201d, according to No 10.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">At the Saudi press conference, Lt Col Turki al-Maliki said Saudi Arabia was still working to identify the precise launch point of the attack, but claimed the debris and data technology was of Iranian origin, and promised to share all the evidence with the UN and Saudi\u2019s allies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He also repeatedly asserted it was the responsibility of the whole international community to respond, saying: \u201cIran\u2019s continued aggression and continued support for militia groups harms us all \u2026 We call the international community to hold Iran responsible; all its actions show and portray its aggression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He said Saudi Arabia had recently intercepted a total of 282 ballistic missiles and 258 UAVs or drones. The bulk of these are likely to have come from Yemen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He added: \u201cThe cruise missiles used were of advanced capability, we have the date of the manufacture which is 2019 \u2013 Iran\u2019s IRGC has this type of weaponry \u2013 all the evidence that we have gathered from the site proves that Iran\u2019s weaponry was used in the attack.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The cruise missile could not reach the oil facilities if they had been fired from Yemen, he said. \u201cThe use of cruise missiles is beyond the capabilities of the Iran proxy in Yemen,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">But despite the impressive display of fallen ordnance, the Saudis have clearly not yet been unable to make an unanswerable case that Iran was directly involved. At one point he said the missiles may have come from Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels, as Iran and the Houthis themselves assert.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The show of weaponry came as the Saudi deputy defence minister, Khalid bin Salman, lavished praise on the US administration for confronting \u201cthe Iranian regime\u2019s and terrorist organisations\u2019 aggression in an unprecedented way\u201d \u2013 adding that \u201cwe in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia thank the [US] president for his stance, we will continue to stand with the USA against the forces of evil and senseless aggression\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">But he also pointedly reminded the US that Barack Obama had committed the US in 2015 to an unequivocal policy \u201cto use all elements of power to secure our core interests in the Gulf region and confront external aggression against our partners and our allies, as we did in the Gulf war\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Former Obama administration officials say this did not amount to a treaty, but a unilateral statement of US policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">So far Trump has proved reluctant to use force to rein in Iran, and in his first practical response since Saturday\u2019s attack he revealed he had asked the US Treasury to expand sanctions on Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The US Treasury has been mounting an ever more exhaustive regime of sanctions on the country since the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last year in an attempt to force Tehran to reopen and broaden the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It is unlikely a further package of already heavily deployed sanctions will be the limit of the US response to the attack on Saudi Arabia, and a range of military responses are being proposed to the president, prompting a formal written warning to the US from Tehran that any US attack would lead to a broader Iranian military retaliation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Trump is aware he needs to build a coalition of domestic and foreign political support for a strike on Iran, and that requires providing evidence that the attack was mounted, or coordinated by Iran, and not by Houthi rebels in Yemen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Houthis staged their own press conference in which army spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Serie tried to substantiate their claim of responsibility for the attack. He said the weapons that targeted Aramco were Qasif K-2 cruise missiles and Samad 3 drones possessing a range of 1,700km (1,050 miles), and were launched from three sites and timed to reach their targets from different angles simultaneously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The destruction was far worse than the Saudi imagery showed, he said. Versions of these weapons were displayed by the Houthis at a small arms exhibition on 7 July, but their true capability is unknown.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Earlier, Iranian president described <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/sep\/14\/pompeo-iran-saudi-arabia-oil-yemen-houthi\">US claims that Tehran was involved<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in the attack on Saudi Arabian petroleum facilities as slanderous and simply part of Washington\u2019s continuing campaign to isolate and put pressure on Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/sep\/18\/saudi-oil-attack-rouhani-dismisses-us-claims-of-iran-role-as-slander\">Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like the Israelis, the Saudis are keen to get the U.S. to neutralise their main regional rival, Iran. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"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":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195005","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\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195005"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195040,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195005\/revisions\/195040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}