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‘Certainly like to avoid’ war with Iran: Trump

17 September, 2019

By SJA Jafri + Agencies

MELBOURNE/ WASHINGTON/ TEHRAN/ RIYADH: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that it looked like Iran was responsible for attacks over the weekend on Saudi Arabian oil plants, but he wants to avoid war.

“It is certainly looking that way at this moment,” Trump told reporters when asked if he believes Iran carried out the attack.

Without providing evidence, Trump said “we pretty much already know” and “certainly it would look to most like it was Iran” but that Washington still wanted more proof.

“We want to find definitively who did this,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he was meeting with Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.
“You’re going to find out in great detail in the near future,” he said. “We have the exact location of just about everything.

“With all that being said, we’d certainly like to avoid” war, he said. “I don’t want war with anybody but we’re prepared more than anybody.”

Washington has blamed Tehran for the attacks, which cut five percent of world crude oil production. Iran has rejected the allegations.

The attacks took place early on Saturday on two major oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have been locked in a war with a Saudi-UAE-led coalition since 2015, claimed responsibility for the attacks, warning Saudi Arabia that their targets “will keep expanding”.

A Saudi military spokesman on Monday said initial investigations show Iranian weapons were used in the weekend attacks.

In denying it was behind the attacks, Iran has said such allegations were meant to justify actions against it.

This image provided by the US government and DigitalGlobe and annotated by the source, shows damage to the infrastructure at Saudi Aramco’s Abaqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq, Saudi Arabia [Handout/US government/Digital Globe/AP Photo]

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said earlier on Monday the attacks were “unprecedented” and the US, along with its allies, was working to defend the “international rules-based order that is being undermined by Iran.”

Congress warns against immediate military action

Meanwhile, members of the US Congress blasted Iran, but expressed wariness about US military action, especially before they have a clearer picture of who was behind Saturday’s attacks.

US politicians, especially Trump’s fellow Republicans, were quick to blame Tehran.

“Iran continues to respond to diplomacy with violence and demonstrate the regime’s refusal to act as a responsible member of the international community,” Senator Jim Risch, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for an international response.

“I hope our international partners will join us in imposing consequences on Iran for this reckless, destabilising attack,” McConnell, a Republican, said as he opened the US Senate.

Many members of Congress stressed that the US Congress, not the president has the right to declare war and warned against any quick military action.

Congress, with backing from both Republicans and Democrats, has passed – but Trump has vetoed – four bills seeking to push back against Trump’s strong support for the Saudi government, despite its human rights record and steep civilian casualties in the war in Yemen.

Senate aides said the administration was expected to begin providing classified briefings on Saturday’s attack for congressional staff and members as soon as Monday.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat who is on the Foreign Relations Committee, noted that the US has long been wary of getting involved in conflicts between nations in the Middle East. He noted that Washington does not have a defence treaty with Riyadh.

“Why should the United States get dragged into a conflict that has more to do with Saudi and Iranian power in the Middle East than American power?” Murphy, a critic of Saudi Arabia on rights issues including its role in the Yemen war, told Reuters.

Risch warned of US retaliation in case of an attack on US troops.

“Iran should not underestimate the United States’ resolve,” he said. “Any attack against US forces deployed abroad must be met with an overwhelming response – no targets are off the table.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson rejected the claim made by the US secretary of state and an America senator that Iran has led Saturday drone strikes on Saudi oil installations, saying the allegation is part of Washington’s new policy of “maximum falsification”.

Senator Richard H. Black says

Earlier, a US Republican State Senator said there is no reliable evidence that Iran was involved in the recent drone attack on Saudi oil installations, which he described as an enormous loss of prestige for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In an interview with Tasnim, Virgina Senator Richard H. Black likened Saudi Arabia to a “school bully who cries when a small girl punches him and gives him a bloody nose,” saying the neocons always accuse Iran of involvement in attacks on Saudi targets because they cling to the dream of starting a new war in the Middle East.

Responding to a question asked by Tasnim Richard explained this June, the US Senate also voted against selling arms to the Saudis. Although the senators could not override the president’s veto, most of them were troubled by the Saudi and Emeriti war against the people of Yemen. Others were aghast at the grisly murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Washington Post reported on November 16, 2018, that, “The CIA has concluded (with a high level of confidence) that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month… according to people familiar with the matter.” Khashoggi’s murder did enormous damage to the reputation of the crown prince.

Oil prices soar after attacks

Oil prices ended nearly 15% higher on Monday, with the Brent benchmark seeing its biggest jump in about 30 years.

The rise came after two attacks on Saudi Arabian facilities on Saturday knocked out about 5% of global supply.

Brent crude initially surged 20% at the start of trading, but eased back to end at $69 a barrel, up 14.6%. US oil prices finished up 14.7%, the biggest jump since 2008.

Prices fell back after President Donald Trump vowed to release US reserves.

The strike, which the US blames on Iran, has sparked fears of increased risk to energy supplies in the region.

However, prices remain below Brent’s 12-month high of $86.29 a barrel seen last October, when West Texas Intermediate also climbed to more than $76 a barrel.

The drone attacks on plants in the heartland of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry hit the world’s biggest petroleum-processing facility as well as a nearby oil field, both of which are operated by energy giant Aramco.

Together they account for about 50% of Saudi Arabia’s oil output, or 5% of daily global oil production. It could take weeks before the facilities are fully back on line.

Aneeka Gupta, commodities strategist at the fund manager Wisdom Tree, said that higher oil prices would not have an immediate impact on consumers as they “could take a bit of time of feed through”.

However, she says that if the outage lasts for more than six weeks, oil prices could hit “north of” $75 a barrel.

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