Middle East

Trump orders new Iran sanctions after Saudi attack

SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the strike on Saudi oil facilities “an Iranian attack” that was an “act of war."

Pompeo stopped short of providing any details definitively showing the Iranians launched the attack from Iran.

"We were blessed that there were no Americans killed in this attack but any time you have an act of war of this nature, theres always risk that that could happen,” he said. “This is an attack of a scale weve just not seen before,” he added later.

Pompeo, speaking to reporters off-camera before landing in Jeddah, said: "This was an Iranian attack. Its not the case that you can subcontract out the devastation of 5% of the worlds global energy supply and think that you can absolve yourself from responsibility. Were it the case that the Houthis fraudulent claim was accurate, were that true — its not, but were that true, it doesnt change the fingerprints of the Ayatollah as having put at risk the global energy supply."

Pompeo said the intelligence community has high confidence that the Houthis did not possess weapons systems like the ones used in the attacks. He said that they believe the attacks originated in Iran, not in Iraq.

"As for how we know, the equipment used is unknown to be in the Houthi arsenal,” he said. “These line attack cruise missiles we have never seen there and we think weve seen most everything. So the intelligence community has high confidence that these were not weapons that would have been in the possession of the Houthis. Thats probably the most important piece of information.”

“We also know that these are systems that the Iranians have not deployed anyplace else, that they have not deployed outside of their country to the best of our knowledge. Weve not seen them deploy these types of UAV systems with the kinds of ranges and capabilities nor have we seen them place these missiles where they could have done it. Weve seen no evidence that it came from Iraq. It could have well have traveled over Kuwait — weve not seen that,” Pompeo said.

He also called the Houthis liars and suggested they do not operate independently from Read More – Source

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