Saudi Arabia calls on world to help stop acts of aggression
Riyadh to invite UN experts to join probe into attack on oil facilities
Dubai: An attack on Saudi Arabia that triggered the biggest jump in oil prices in almost 30 years was carried out with Iranian weapons, Saudi Arabia confirmed late on Monday, as President Donald Trump said the US was “locked and loaded” to hit back.
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said the country will invite international experts, including from the United Nations to participate in investigating the attack and called on the world to condemn those behind it and help stop the acts of aggression.
Preliminary probe
Preliminary investigations showed that Iranian weapons were used in the attack, which knocked out more than half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production and damaged the world’s biggest crude processing plant, the ministry statement said.
The ministry said investigations are under way into the source of the attack that above all targeted global oil supplies.
Trump said it’s “looking like” Iran was responsible for the attacks, but said he doesn’t want war. Trump said the US is not looking at retaliatory options until he has “definitive proof” that Iran was responsible.
Still, Trump told reporters that the US “is prepared” if the attacks warrant a response. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said “emerging information indicates that responsibility lies with Iran.”
Pompeo’s visit
Trump said Pompeo will be travelling to Saudi Arabia but did not say when.
Iran rejected the allegations. A government spokesman said there now was “absolutely no chance” of a hoped-for meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Trump at the UN General Assembly next week.
Trump earlier pledged to stand by the kingdom saying the US would help its allies despite US energy independence. “We don’t need Middle Eastern Oil & Gas, & in fact have very few tankers there, but will help our Allies!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“Remember when Iran shot down a drone, saying knowingly that it was in their “airspace” when, in fact, it was nowhere close. They stuck strongly to that story knowing that it was a very big lie. Now they say that they had nothing to do with the attack on Saudi Arabia. We’ll see,” Trump tweeted.
According to a senior official in the US government who spoke to ABC news, the US believes that Iran was indeed behind the attack. The official said nearly a dozen cruise missiles and over 20 drones were deployed in the attack.