Two unnamed U.S. officials told reporters on Sunday that there was “no doubt” Iran was behind Saturday’s attacks on two key oil facilities inside Saudi Arabia. The officials said the Houthis of Yemen, who claimed responsibility, could not have pulled it off because of the scope and precision of the attacks. Despite the official’s claims, the Saudi oil facilities that were attacked are in range of the Houthi’s drones.
One official said, “The Houthis have never struck this far afield in the past because we don’t think that they have that capability. And the Houthis have never struck in this precise and coordinated fashion before.”
The Abqaiq oil facility that was struck over the weekend lies just over 730 miles from the Houthi-controlled city of Sa’dah. The second target, the Khurais oil facility, is just over 640 miles from Sa’dah. These locations are certainly within range of the Houthi’s drones, which UN investigators believe to be over 900 miles.
The Houthis have been launching similar attacks over the past few months on Saudi oil infrastructure. In August, they launched a successful drone strike on the Shaybah oil field, which is over 750 miles from Sa’dah.
Sa’dah is not necessarily where these attacks are launched from, it is just one of the more northern cities the Houthis control. There is territory further east under Houthi control that is closer to all of these targets.
As far as the precision of the attacks, the Houthis demonstrated the precision of their drones in an attack on a military parade inside Yemen back in January. The Houthis specifically targeted and hit a platform where high-ranking military officers were sitting. The attack killed six soldiers and wounded several senior officers.
Saudi Arabia said on Monday that the attacks were done with Iranian weapons and were not launched from Yemen. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a similar claim in a tweet on Saturday when he said, “There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
A congressional source told NBC that there is a bipartisan consensus in Washington that the attacks came from Iran. “This attack had a level of sophistication we have not seen before,” the source said. “You will not see Democrats pushing back on the idea that Iran was behind it.” NBC also reported that three unnamed U.S. officials said there was compelling evidence showing the origin of the attacks.
Senator Christopher Coons (D-Del.) appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning to discuss the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. “This may well be the thing that calls for military action against Iran if that’s what the intelligence supports,” Coons said. The Senator also made the claim that the Houthis don’t have the “sort of advanced drones that carried out” the attack.
No evidence has been presented to the public by the Saudis or any U.S. officials to confirm the attacks did not originate from Yemen. On Monday, Houthi military spokesman Yayha Sarea said oil facilities in Saudi Arabia are a still a target and can be attacked at “any moment.” Sarea called on Saudi Arabia to stop its “aggression and blockade” on Yemen.
Their Samad – 3 drone is most likely what was used in the main strike after the patriots were disabled. The Quds missiles were probably used to take down the Patriot batteries prior to the main attack. The Houthis have demonstrated increasing range and sophistication with each strike, starting well over a year ago now.
It is more likely that the Patriot missiles were just looking in the wrong direction. They were looking at Iran. They were not disabled, what they were meant to defend was just attacked from behind them where they were not looking.
This makes sense.
Things are going to change. Radar coverage will be rearranged. Additional radar units will be rushed to Saudi to get better coverage. I don’t know how many targets there are to protect, whether that is even a reasonable strategy. Then there’s other infrastructure: power plants and desalinization plants.
I think, bottom line, that MbS knows the war is lost, and now he has to figure a way to climb down. You notice that Trump said he’s awaiting Saudi input on how to proceed, and the Saudis have asked the UN to investigate. That’s a lot of passing the buck and stalling. Nobody wants the big war.
My guess would be an immediate and unilateral cease-fire on the part of MbS, with declarations of the depth of his compassionate nature and accompanied perhaps by a little humanitarian aid allowed in to feed the starving children, … all of this accompanied by a whole lot of “jaw jaw”.
“The Houthis have never struck this far afield in the past because we don’t think that they have that capability. And the Houthis have never struck in this precise and coordinated fashion before.”
Neither has Iran.
Nobody at all has ever “struck in this precise and coordinated fashion before.” This is new.
So why assume it must be Iran and the Houthis can’t learn it?
Those “rebels” are in fact the effective government, of a population the size of the Saudis. The so-called government is a Saudi puppet with control of very little. They had a real military, that owned such weapons and was trained to use them.
“The attack showed a surprising level of sophistication for the Houthi rebels and is likely to further undermine UN efforts to broker a peace deal to end the Yemen’s brutal four-year war.”
This was said after the attack on the military parade in January.
“A congressional source told NBC that there is a bipartisan consensus in Washington that the attacks came from Iran. “This attack had a level of sophistication we have not seen before,” the source said.”
And this after the most recent attack.
So the entire US government – with the sole exception of a few people like Tulsi Gabbard and Justin Amash – have now committed themselves to starting a war with Iran.
And some people here think Trump is going to just quash this.
Yeah, right. Trump’s support for Saudi Arabia matches his support for Israel. So if Saudi Arabia continues to be attacked, what is Trump going to do? Just sit there and tweet bad thoughts about Iran? Just suddenly reverse himself and say it’s not Iran, it’s just the Houthis? And how does that save him if the Houthis continue to disrupt Saudi oil production and drive up the oil price to the point where the US economy tips into recession?
Trump no longer has any choice in the matter. The entire US establishment wants a war with Iran. The US establishment has been pushing the “Iran bad” meme for decades. Trump’s entire administration is a Zionist/neocon clique. Trump’s own family is a Zionist clique.
So Trump is just suddenly going to “go Presidential” and prevent a war?
That ain’t gonna happen.