Trump says he is “ready” to respond to Iran by attacking the oil refineries of Saudi SaudíIrán seize a ship in the Persian Gulf for allegedly transporting fuel contrabandoEE.UU. ensures that will respond to Iran attack refineries saudi
Raising significantly the tension in the Persian gulf, the Iranian government said yesterday that it boarded a ship accused of smuggling crude oil and arrested its 11 crew members. In parallel, the White House made public satellite images of the oil refineries attacked in Saudi Arabia on Saturday to prove that the drones used came from the north, and that therefore Iran is the perpetrator of the assault , and not the rebels of Yemen, a country that lies to the south. The american president said that everything points to Iran as the perpetrator of the attack, but admitted that “in any case, the united States would like to avoid an armed conflict”.
As revealed yesterday the state television of iran, a maritime patrol of the Revolutionary Guard captured a small freighter that was carrying 250,000 liters of oil through the strait of Hormuz, with destination to United Arab Emirates. The islamic regime has not revealed under what flag he sailed the ship nor the nationality of the detained . The Saturday’s attack against saudi Aramco has caused a dramatic increase in the price of crude and a warning to the US that could get to respond with the use of force.
But the truth is that while the Sunday, Donald Trump warned via Twitter that the U.S. is “armed and ready” to act in the Gulf, yesterday, he in the White House, and said that investigations into the authorship of the attack have not yet been concluded, and that in any case will proceed “with caution”.
“We will sit down with the saudis and we’ll see what response we” , yesterday said Trump in a conversation with the press revealed that he has ordered to the chief of american diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, who travel to Riyadh to meet with representatives of the crown arabia.
The White House and the crown arabia did yesterday public a part of the tests that have the attack in an attempt to add international support to its possible reprisals against Iran. Both allies maintain that the rebels hutíes lack of weapons and expertise to carry out an attack of such complexity against 17 different points of the fields and refineries of crude oil to more than 800 kilometers from the border with Yemen. The aggression has disrupted the world’s supply of 5.7 million barrels of oil.
The satellite images yesterday spread the diplomacy of the US show damages in the northern part of the facilities attacked, but do not constitute a demonstration of the irrefutable that Iran is the source of the attacks. Yes it is true, as has been recalled by the White House, that the islamic regime it takes months starring in skirmishes like the one yesterday against oil in an attempt to gain weight in the negotiations on its nuclear disarmament. In addition, Iran has armed not only to the hutíes in Yemen but also to other militias affiliated to shi’a in the area from Iraq to Lebanon.
Russia and China warn
The armed forces saudis said yesterday that the weapons used in the attack are all from Iran . “The majority of the clues and the evidence which we have suggests that the weapon used in this terrorist aggression, in the two points attacked in Buqays and Khurais, are manufacturing iranian,” he said yesterday, a military spokesman saudi arabian colonel Turki al-Maliki, in a conference televised. Both Russia and China have warned Saudi Arabia and the US against rushing to blame Iran without conclusive evidence.
The iranian president, Hasan Rohaní, rejected yesterday the authorship of the attack, but he said that the hutíes in Yemen have the right to respond to the bombing of the Saudi Arabia submits them as from 2015. “What do yemenis is to defend yourself in a legitimate way. It is a logical response, which by the way shows that the only end to the conflict [in Yemen] is a process of political dialogue,” said Rohaní during a visit to Turkey, reports AP.
The diplomatic spokesman of the iranian regime, Abbas Mousavi, described the accusations of the US and Saudi Arabia of “unacceptable and inconsistent”. As a protest, Iran cancelled yesterday the plans of the president Rohaní meet with Trump during the United Nations General Assembly which will take place next week in New York.
In the White House, there are actually clues of what is going to make Trump, still less after his conciliatory tone yesterday. Already in July, the president was aborted at the last moment an operation with missiles against Iran for the shooting down of a drone american in international waters (Iran maintains that this had penetrated their airspace). Then, Trump said that he preferred to save USA from an attack that was going to cause at least a dozen dead.
Of particular relevance is that since last week Trump lacks the National Security advisor, a position in which a president will usually support at the time of planning this kind of response. According to has revealed the own Trump in several comments to the media, one of the reasons for the dismissal of John Bolton was his extreme belligerence with Iran , a country, like many others, that the president would like to reach an agreement before leaving the presidency. (Bolton maintains that he resigned).
Until now, the White House policy with respect to Iran, the spirit of Bolton, during his 17 months as National Security advisor had freedom of action to take to US of the agreement of the denuclearization of 2015 and to toughen sanctions resulting in the demise of the regime. To Bolton, in fact, is considered crucial in the failed attempt to seize in July of an iranian oil loaded with 2.1 million barrels of crude oil when you cross the strait of Gibraltar. The freighter was set free and handed the oil to Syria.
The effect of the attacks on the crude oil price has been dramatic. At various times of the day yesterday the price of a barrel of Brent, a benchmark in Europe, soared more than 18%, an increase not recorded since the years of the first Gulf War in 1990. The average rise in Brent was at a respectable 10.5 per cent, up to the 66,56 dollars (60,52€). While, the barrel of West Texas, reference in the U.S., rose more than 9%, to 59,82 dollars (54,39 euros).
This is the major disruption in daily oil supply story , volume of barrels. It is superior to the 5.6-million barrels a day to the affected the Iranian revolution in 1978 and 4.3 million of the first Gulf War and the embargo, the Yom Kippur war of 1973. It is estimated that this attack on the fields of Buqayq and Khurais in Saudi Arabia has been forced to suspend 5% of the world’s supply of crude oil, affecting above all to asian markets.
The rebels hutíes did yesterday an effort by them to create when they say that they are the perpetrators of the attack against the interests of the oil company saudi Aramco. A spokesman for the militia a yemeni Yahya Saree, disseminated a press release in social networks in which he reiterated what he had said on Saturday: “We assured the saudi regime that our arm is able to he had scourged him where we want and when we want”.
The hutíes lead from 2014 immersed in a civil war that has divided the country and has led to more of 91,000 dead. To support their allies in Yemen, the crown arabia has formed a coalition supported by the U.S. to launch airstrikes that so far have not served to evacuate the hutíes, who receive material support from Iran. Despite being a group of poorly-armed and resource-poor, the hutíes already have used drones in attacks quite rudimentary in the past.
