World

Saudi Arabia Victim of Airstrike

By Reporter Austin Kent

Drone attacks on two Saudi Arabian oil facilities over the weekend – which knocked out half of the country’s output and 5 percent of the global supply – could push China to diversify its oil import partners, experts say.

China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil, has grown increasingly reliant on Saudi crude over the past year, official figures show, as it has reduced imports from other large suppliers like the United States and Iran in recent months amid trade tensions with Washington and US sanctions on Iran.

The gulf state – which was the victim of attacks on the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oilfield on Saturday, claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels – is China’s second largest source of crude oil after Russia, supplying the fuel-hungry country with over a million barrels a day.

President Donald Trump on Sunday evening tweeted that the US has "reason to believe that we know" who is responsible for an attack on a Saudi Arabian oil field and the country is "locked and loaded depending on verification" following the crippling strike.

"Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!" Trump said.

Trump's tweet, which appeared to raise the specter of a US military response, served to ratchet up tensions in a region already on edge after Saturday's audacious attack on the Saudi oil field. To many peoples dismay, President Trump is trying to avoid War with them as much as possible. “With all that being said, we’d certainly like to avoid it,” he said. “I know they want to make a deal,” he said of Iranian officials, whom he has been trying to draw into talks over their nuclear program and other issues. “At some point it will work out.”

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Houthi insurgency in Yemen, who have been fighting a calamitous civil war against a Saudi-led military coalition. Iran is a chief ally of the Houthis.

With that information known, American officials directly blamed Iran over the weekend for the blows to the Saudi oil facilities. They presented satellite photographs of the damage, contending that the images indicated that the attack had come from the north or northwest — in the direction of Iran or Iraq — not from Yemen, which is to the south.

The Saudis also said Monday that their initial investigation showed that the attack had not come from Yemen,but an analysis of the images by independent experts challenged those assertions.

The images did suggest a complex, precise attack that far exceeded any capabilities the Houthis had previously shown, raising the likelihood of Iran’s involvement. Still, experts said the images were insufficient to prove where the attack came from, which weapons were used and who fired them.

Iran has denied any involvement in the strike, which threatened to disrupt the global flow of oil.

But Mr. Trump sought to play down the impact on oil prices. “They haven’t risen very much, and we have the strategic oil reserves, which are massive,” he told reporters. By releasing some of those reserves, he said, “you’d bring it right down.”

Mr. Trump has sent mixed signals on his response to the attack, which happened only a few days after he dismissed John R. Bolton, his national security adviser, who was known for having wanted to strike Iran militarily.