Visiting 34-year-old Saudi Defense Minister Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Sept. 18 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 55-year-old U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi’s main oil refinery an “act of war.” “This is an attack of a scale we’ve just not seen before,” Pompeo said, while examining the fragments of Iranian predator drones and Cruise missiles found at the scene. “The Saudis were the nation that were attacked. It was on their soil. It was an act of war against them directly,” Pompeo said, only a day before Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrives in New York for the opening of the U.S. General Assembly. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is also due to arrive next week, still waiting for his visa from Washington. Pompeo disputed Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim Sept. 14 of responsibility, blaming the attack on Iran.
Pompeo was suppose to discus with Bin Salman any military action the U.S. might consider in response to the Sept. 14 attacks that knocked out 50% of Saudi’s refining capacity or roughly 5% of world wide crude oil production. Pompeo said Houthi rebels lacked the Cruise missiles and predator drones needed to carry out the attack, giving Bin Salman the best evidence that the attack originated from the North, not the South where Houth rebels have their arsenal. U.S. intel confirms the flight pattern came from the North, not the South, making it unlikely that the Houthis launched the attack. Pompeo said U.S. intel agencies had “high confidence’ that the Cruise missiles and predator drones were not in the Houthi’s arsenal. Speaking in Jeddah, Pompeo said that, whoever fired the drones and missiles, it had Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s fingerprints all over the fragments found at the refinery and oil field.
Responding to Pompeo’s remarks, Zarif said that any retaliatory strike would be met with “all-out-war” by Iran, putting Saudi Arabia and the U.S. on notice that Iran would defend its sovereignty. “Were that true—it’s not, but were that true—it doesn’t change the fingerprints of the Aytatollah as having put at risk the global energy supply,” said Pompeo, looking to build an coalition to confront Iran’s aggression. Trump said publicly that Saudi Arabia was attacked, not the U.S. but would be helpful to Riyadh in anyway possible. Pompeo’s tough talk was contrasted with Trump, who said he would ask Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to draft more draconic Iranian sanctions, adding to the ones that prevents Iran from selling petroleum in world markets. Iran denies that it was responsible for the Sept. 14 attacks on the Saudi refinery and oil field, not saying who was responsible.
Zarif’s known for his bluster, now threatening all-out-war on the U.S. or anyone else that attacks Iran’s oil infrastructure. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) calls for retaliatory strikes on Iran, believing the sanctions aren’t enough to deter Iranian aggression. Zarif wants the international community to believe that Yemen’s Houthi rebels were responsible for the attacks, not Iran. Yet Zarif knows that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] supplies Cruise missiles and predator drones to Houthis rebels to attack Saudi Arabia. “I am sure Iran didn’t do it,” Zarif insisted, referring the Sept. 14 attacks. “Well, I make a very serious statement about defending our country. I’m making a very serious statement that we don’t want war, we don’t want to engage in military confrontation,” Zarif said, not accounting for what happened with the Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi soil.
Zarif warned that any strike on Iranian soil would be met with “all-out war,” knowing that Trump would not commit U.S. ground troops to the Iranian theater. “We believe that a military confrontation based on deception is awful. There will be a lot of casualties. But we won’t blink to defend our territory,” offering the same kind of bluster when confronted with possible military intervention. Pompeo traveled to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates that said it would join a U.S.-led coalition against Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf. Since Trump sent a Navy carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf May 28, oil tankers were attacked with Limpet mines June 13. U.S. intel officials found Iran responsible for the Limpet mine attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Like the Sept. 14 attacks in Saudi Arabia, Iran has denied attacking tankers in the Gulf.
Iran sends Zarif out as a smokescreen to cover-up Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf and most recently in Saudi Arabia. Threatening “all-out-war,” Zarif fashions his remarks at Bin Salman, letting the young Crown Prince know there would be consequences to any retaliatory strike. Pompeo let Bin Salman know the U.S. stands with the Kingdom against Iranian aggression but isn’t ready to use the U.S. military in a retaliatory strike. Pompeo told Bin Salman that U.S. intel places the origin of the Sept. 14 attacks inside Iranian territory, more likely fired by some division of the IRGC, including Iran’s al-Quds force or its Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia. Saudi Defense Ministry Spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said he hasn’t determined the launch point but said the attacks were “sponsored by Iran.” Zarif heads to the U.N. knowing he represents a rogue state.
