The Saudi kingdom finds itself in an increasingly dangerous situation as a result of the retaliatory capacity of the Houthis, able to inflict severe military and economic damage on Riyadh with their missile forces. Estimates suggest that Riyadh is losing something in the region of $300 million a day from the Houthi attacks. On Sunday September 15, a spokesman for the Saudi oil ministry spoke of damage that is yet to be calculated, possibly requiring weeks of repair. Meanwhile, Saudi oil production has halved following the Saturday attack. With a military budget of $200,000, the Houthis managed to inflict damage numbering in the billions of dollars.

House of Saud Isolated

If it all sounds like a big fabricated confusion, it’s because it is a big fabricated confusion. Iran is singled out; fingers pointing to Iran (except, miraculously those of Saudi Arabia), like a sledgehammer hitting Iran, again and again. – The mainstream media loves it. Today, a week after the attack, most nobody remembers the Houthis claiming responsibility – it was Iran. Period. The media blitz won.

The chief of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has vowed to shoot down all drones violating the nation’s airspace and repel any aggressor. The warning came after the US accused Iran of hitting Saudi oil sites.
Tehran is ready for “any scenario,” and remains determined to fight back “until the full destruction of any aggressor,” IRGC commander, Major General Hossein Salami, told reporters at a news conference on Saturday.

“Whoever wants their land to become the main battlefield, go ahead,” he said.

Salami made his comments while showcasing the pieces of a US RQ-4 Global Hawk spy drone that was downed by the IRGC over the Strait of Hormuz in June. Iran claimed the drone had violated its airspace, though this was disputed by Washington. Salami vowed to “take action” against all foreign drones violating the nation’s borders.

“If anyone crosses our borders, we will hit them,” he stated.

French President Emmanuel Macron is deploying experts to Saudi Arabia to investigate the origin of the attacks on major oil facilities that Washington and Riyadh blame on Iran, Paris said Wednesday.
France’s presidential palace announced Macron’s decision to send the experts after the French leader held a phone conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency reports.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of carrying out Saturday’s devastating attacks on two facilities operated by the Sunni kingdom’s state-run Aramco. Macron’s administration appears to doubt Iran’s involvement in the debilitating attacks. Iran also denies involvement in the assault on the two plants, which include the top petroleum processing facility in the world.

Earlier, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami, said that any country that attacks Iran would be the "main battlefield".

Iran's Navy Commander Hossein Khanzadi has said that Tehran is prepared to defend its maritime borders and will respond with a "crushing reaction" to any aggression by enemies.

Earlier, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran will not allow anyone to violate its borders. He added that the Islamic Republic extends the hand of friendship to all of its neighbours.

Cooperation Project on Security in Persian Gulf.

Iran will present a proposal to the UN on how it intends to cooperate with other countries in the region to ensure the security of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, according to Rouhani.

It is rather bizarre Liz Cheney, the daughter of Dick Cheney, would cofound Keep America Safe (now defunct) with a neocon talking head, Bill Kristol. The forever war outfit was funded by Mel Sembler, an Israel-first real estate tycoon who is a good friend of Bibi Netanyahu.
Cheney has absolutely no interest in keeping America safe. She is calling for an immediate attack on Iran.

From The Hill:

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said on Wednesday the U.S. should consider a “proportional military response” against Iran, among other potential actions, over its suspected involvement in drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil supply.

Liz Cheney calls for "proportional military" response against Iran https://t.co/4bmxqLnXK0 pic.twitter.com/ubQXGg1SsL

— The Hill (@thehill) September 18, 2019

Much of the attention concerning the crippling damage to Saudi Aramco facilities struck in last week's aerial attack ultimately blamed on "Iranian sponsorship" by US and Saudi officials has focused on Abqaiq processing plant, but on Friday the first on the ground images from the kingdom's giant Khurais oil field — the country's second largest — have been revealed, showing scorched infrastructure, ruptured pipelines, and "a mess of oil melted to asphalt, twisted and charred metal grates" according to an on site Bloomberg report.

And yet Aramco has remained insistent that the field will return to pre-attack output levels this month, after the company reported losing half its daily output in the aftermath of the early Saturday attacks, impacting a whopping 5% of total global supply.

Per Bloomberg, Khurais has a capacity of 1.45 million barrels a day, processing all oil on site; however the attack took out four 300-foot towers essential to the production process.

Though President Trump has downplayed the idea of war with Iran over the past couple of days, the actual decision is to be made at a high-profile meeting, either Thursday or Friday depending according to reports.

Trump will be joined by a number of national security officials and other aides, and will be presented with a wide array of options by the Pentagon. Options are said to range from full-scale war to a simple cyberattack.

Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was very clear about the Pentagon not pushing any specific agenda on this matter, saying the response would be purely a “political judgement.”

Among Trump’s officials, Pompeo is seen as the one pushing hardest for a military response. He’s been in Saudi Arabia meeting with officials there, and probably will come back all the more hawkish.

The Saudi-led coalition has launched a new military operation north of Hodeidah, the crucial port city where nearly all of Yemen’s scarce food and other supplies are delivered, against what it called “legitimate military targets,” state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Friday.

The coalition put out a call to civilians to keep clear of the operation’s targets, even though it is unclear how much of the Yemeni population – 80 percent of which are in various states of humanitarian crisis after more than five years of bombardment – would watch Saudi television to know what sites to stay away from.

Iran’s foreign minister on Thursday shot back at Pompeo's Wednesday remarks from Jeddah characterizing the Aramco attacks as an "act of war" by Iran. FM Javad Zarif warned of "all-out war" if the US or Saudis attack Tehran in response. “We won’t blink to defend our territory,” Zarif told CNN.

Though the White House is said to be weighing "options" — including "substantially increased" sanctions which Trump announced this week, the consensus is the administration is cautiously walking back from a war footing. As the WSJ reports:

The White House is pushing to build an international coalition to exert pressure on Iran through the United Nations as its chief response to the attack on Saudi oil facilities, an approach consistent with President Trump’s aversion to military intervention, but also reflecting limits on his retaliatory options.

Saudi Aramco's oil refinery was severely crippled in an attack on 14 September, which has been claimed by Yemen’s Houthi movement. Despite this, the US has claimed it has evidence that it was in fact Iran that was behind the incident, something which the country has vehemently denied.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has during talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman called for an unbiased investigation to be carried out into the recent attack on Saudi oil facilities on 14 September, the president's press service reported.

"The issue of the attack on Saudi oil refineries has been discussed [during talks]. Vladimir Putin expressed his concern with regard to the situation and has called for conducting a thorough and unbiased investigation of the incident", the statement said.

President Donald Trump does not want war with Iran. America does not want war with Iran. Even the Senate Republicans are advising against military action in response to that attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities.

“All of us (should) get together and exchange ideas, respectfully, and come to a consensus — and that should be bipartisan,” says Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch of Idaho.

When Lindsey Graham said the White House had shown “weakness” and urged retaliatory strikes for what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls Iran’s “act of war,” the president backhanded his golfing buddy:

“It’s very easy to attack, but if you ask Lindsey … ask him how did going into the Middle East … work out. And how did Iraq work out?”

Amidst historic U.S. – Iran tensions, Beijing is doubling-down on its strategic partnership with Tehran, ignoring U.S. efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic from global markets. Following an August visit by Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Beijing, the two countries agreed to update a 25-year program signed in 2016, to include an unprecedented $400 billion of investment in the Iranian economy – sanctions be damned.

The drone attack on Saudi Arabia oil facilities on September 14 is jolting the entire Middle East, the latest incident in a months-long battle between the Trump Administration and Iran. Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed credit for the devastating attack that shut down half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blames Iran for the attack, while Iran has categorically denied it.

Let’s not forget that the Trump Administration started this low-level war by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear accord. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to ratify the agreement, so the U.S. stands in violation of UN resolutions and international law.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday praised US President Donald Trump’s announcement he would slap new sanctions on Iran.

“Iran’s aggression has increased of late, including in the Gulf and this is precisely the time to increase pressure and sanctions. I am pleased President Trump has done exactly this,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

Following John Bolton’s departure from the White House, Saudi Arabia’s oil facility was attacked by drones operated by the Houthi rebels of Yemen. Trump and his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo once again claimed that it was the Iranians who committed the attack without any supporting evidence.

Make no mistake, the neocons are still in the White House and they want a war. The neocons or the neoconservatives want the U.S. to promote its form of democracy throughout the world and want to ensure its interests takes center stage in international relations through its military power. The neocons made a comeback with the George W. Bush Jr. administration and their allies in the Middle East including Israel and Saudi Arabia who orchestrated the September 11th attacks. President George W. Bush Jr. gave a speech while the U.S. population was still in shock and named the Axis of Evil which was North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

O’Brien replaces the ousted hawk John Bolton.

He does not face Senate confirmation and will be Trump’s fourth national security adviser in three years.

Strikingly, just days ago in Israel, O’Brien contemplated war with Iran over Americans imprisoned in that country.

His promotion comes in the very week US-Iranian tensions have ratcheted to their highest point during Trump’s tenure.

The president, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Arabia are now pointing fingers at Iran over the recent attack on two Saudi oil refineries.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

The Yemeni Shiite group’s spectacular attack on Abqaiq raises the distinct possibility of a push to drive the House of Saud from power.

Houthi striking capability – from drone swarms to ballistic missile attacks – has been improving remarkably for the past year or so. It’s not by accident that the UAE saw which way the geopolitical and geoeconomic winds were blowing: Abu Dhabi withdrew from Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s vicious war against Yemen and now is engaged in what it describes as a “peace-first” strategy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham has become one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies since trashing his candidacy in 2016. But he’s sticking with his criticism of Trump’s approach on Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister warned Thursday of an “all-out war” if the US or Saudi Arabia launch military strikes in retaliation for the drone-and-missile attacks on Saudi oil sites.

Javad Zarif told CNN that Tehran hoped to avoid conflict, adding that the country was willing to hold discussions with its regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

But the top Iranian diplomat rejected negotiations with Washington unless the US provided full sanctions relief as promised under the 2015 nuclear deal, which President Trump pulled out of last year.

On Saturday, September 14th, two oil refineries and other oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia were hit and set ablaze by 18 drones and 7 cruise missiles, dramatically slashing Saudi Arabia’s oil production by half, from about ten million to five million barrels per day. On September 18, the Trump administration, blaming Iran, announced it was imposing more sanctions on Iran and voices close to Donald Trump are calling for military action. But this attack should lead to just the opposite response: urgent calls for an immediate end to the war in Yemen and an end to US economic warfare against Iran.

Robert O’Brien might be just as hawkish as John Bolton, but he is "certainly not as pugilistic," according to people close to the president's new adviser.

There will be no speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly that opens next week, as Tuesday’s inconclusive election results has forced him to cancel plans to fly to New York, address the world body, and meet US President Donald Trump.

Instead, Netanyahu will be in the thick of coalition negotiations. This will be the first time in nine years that he will not address the parley. Foreign Minister Israel Katz will do so instead.

According to the UN schedule, Netanyahu was listed as the 12th speaker on September 26, the third and final day of speeches by world leaders. He was scheduled to come to the podium to speak just three slots after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The international SWIFT network banned Iranian banks from its system soon after the US imposed sanctions against the country in November 2018. The ban was preceded by Washington's threats to slap sanctions on the financial network too if it were to continue working with the Islamic Republic's financial institutions.

Iranian Central Bank (CBI) head Abdolnaser Hemmati said in a statement on 18 September that the country is planning to evade American economic sanctions by switching entirely away from the dollar to national currencies in mutual trade and by bypassing SWIFT. Such steps have been discussed with Turkey and Russia.

Earlier in the day, Saudi ambassador to London Prince Khalid bin Bander bin Sultan Al Saud said that the recent attack on the kingdom's oil facilities was "almost certainly" backed by Iran.

On Wednesday, the Saudi Defence Ministry organised a news conference to show journalists what it describes as an Iranian cruise missile and Delta Wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

"The investigation has shown that the drone’s type is Delta Wing, and the information obtained by the ministry indicates the drone’s technology is Iranian," the department's spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said.

What's the end game here? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has just arrived in Jeddah for talks with Saudi leaders over a response to the weekend attacks on two of the kingdom's major oil facilities.

After a prior press conference by the Saudi Defense Ministry where it for the first time assigned public blame on Iran for the attacks which initially knocked out half of the kingdom's daily oil output, saying the air attacks "unquestionably" had Iranian state sponsorship, Pompeo has announced the Aramco attacks constitute an "act of war" by Iran.

The US isn't going to leap into a war with Iran, because they can't manufacture consent for it right now.

Saudi Arabia said it would produce evidence on Wednesday linking regional rival Tehran to an unprecedented attack on its oil industry that Washington believes originated from Iran in a dangerous escalation of Middle East frictions.

But Tehran again denied involvement in the Sept. 14 attacks on oil plants, including the world’s biggest crude processing facility, that initially knocked out half of Saudi production.

“They want to impose maximum … pressure on Iran through slander,” Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said according to state media. “We don’t want conflict in the region … Who started the conflict?” he said, blaming Washington and its Gulf allies for war in Yemen.

President Donald Trump tweeted that he has ordered the Treasury to 'substantially' increase economic sanctions on Iran, after huddling with his security advisors to get military and other options.

The president's response against the already heavily-sanctioned Iran comes after he received options including military ones from his security advisors – while fending off outside pressure from a key political ally that Tehran viewed his response to its downing of a U.S. drone in June as a sign of 'weakness.'

'I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!' Trump tweeted.

The recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities by Yemeni Houthi forces demonstrate once again that an aggressive foreign policy often brings unintended consequences and can result in blowback. In 2015 Saudi Arabia attacked its neighbor, Yemen, because a coup in that country ousted the Saudi-backed dictator. Four years later Yemen is in ruins, with nearly 100,000 Yemenis killed and millions more facing death by starvation. It has been rightly called the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet.

But rich and powerful Saudi Arabia did not defeat Yemen. In fact, the Saudis last month asked the Trump Administration to help facilitate talks with the Houthis in hopes that the war, which has cost Saudi Arabia tens of billions of dollars, could finally end without Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman losing too much face. Washington admitted earlier this month that those talks had begun.

As usual, we’re expected to believe officialdom on responsibility for the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil production. Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former CIA boss and tank commander, reflexively blamed Iran minus any evidence whatsoever.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was sure of who was responsible for the attack on Saudi oil facilities shortly after the attack. Neocons followed suit, one by one blaming Iran and calling for the war they’ve been drooling over for years. But not only are Washington’s European partners skeptical of the claims – even Gulf allies are not outright blaming Iran. Lies grease the wheels of the war machine and with the latest attack the grease is flowing freely.

It appears oil markets just heard that one - since the early Saturday attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities talk of war has been on the table, especially given President Trump's initial "locked and loaded" threat - however it now seems certain there will be no war, given the president has announced new sanctions.

"I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!" Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.

Saudi Arabia revealed yesterday that, contrary to its initial estimates, Aramco should be able to restore oil production to 100% capacity by the end of the month. And on Wednesday morning, the kingdom's Defense Ministry said it was planning a press conference to present "material evidence" purportedly linking Tehran to the unprecedented attack on the Kingdom's oil infrastructure.

The country's defense ministry will hold a news conference later in the day laying out new evidence. This follows reports from the US claiming that the roughly 20 missiles and drones used in the attack had been traced back to a 'launch site' in southern Iran.

Tehran has denied involvement in the Sept. 14 attacks, while the Houthi rebels in nearby Yemen have claimed credit. But Washington and Riyadh have adamantly blamed Iran, whom they have blamed for several 'attacks' in the region since the start of the year.

Both Channel 12 and Channel 13 exit polls foresee yet another stalemate, and granted Blue and White the highest amount of seats.

Netanyahu, Gantz and other candidates spent the day pleading with voters to leave their homes and the beaches and malls to cast ballots. All the party heads, except for Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, warned constantly that their voters’ turnout was too low and that the results would be a crisis tor their party.

"If this will continue we will lose these elections," Blue and White’s co-candidate for prime minister Yair Lapid said. "We need to vote or we are heading to disaster."

Lapid, Gantz and Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked went to the beach to ask sunbathers to vote. Gantz went to the Grand Canyon Mall in Haifa. Netanyahu went to the Jerusalem central bus station and the Mahane Yehuda market.

“The turnout in Tel Aviv is sky high and in Jerusalem it has hit the floor,” he told vendors at the market.

Both Channel 12 and Channel 13 exit polls foresee yet another stalemate, and granted Blue and White the highest amount of seats.

Netanyahu, Gantz and other candidates spent the day pleading with voters to leave their homes and the beaches and malls to cast ballots. All the party heads, except for Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, warned constantly that their voters’ turnout was too low and that the results would be a crisis tor their party.

"If this will continue we will lose these elections," Blue and White’s co-candidate for prime minister Yair Lapid said. "We need to vote or we are heading to disaster."

Lapid, Gantz and Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked went to the beach to ask sunbathers to vote. Gantz went to the Grand Canyon Mall in Haifa. Netanyahu went to the Jerusalem central bus station and the Mahane Yehuda market.

“The turnout in Tel Aviv is sky high and in Jerusalem it has hit the floor,” he told vendors at the market.

If we consult a map, we discover Israel is situated to the northwest of Saudi Arabia. Iran is in the east and Iraq to the north. Because cruise missiles and drones have the capability of changing direction, we do not have a good idea where the missiles came from and the party responsible for launching them.

For the US, this is not a problem. It is now habituated to telling lies, releasing misinformation, and disseminating propaganda associated with false flag attacks. Much of what it reports is believed without question by millions of Americans. The state describes this mass credulity and inability to question authority as “patriotism.”

On Saturday, a large-scale drone attack struck a key Saudi oil facility, disrupting about half the kingdom’s oil capacity.

The strike resulted in the suspension of millions of dollars’ worth of oil and gas output, and caused a spike in global energy prices. U.S. officials are pointing the finger at Iran. While the strike was more sophisticated and damaging than previous attacks, open military conflict with Iran is still probably—though by no means certainly—off the table. The question is, how many more of these incidents can the region’s uneasy status quo withstand?

How were low-tech drones able to pierce Saudi Arabian security? Defence system called into question despite country spending $65bn on arms last year including US radar and Patriot missiles - as mocking Putin says they should have bought Russian.

SOURCE: SUMMIT.NEWS
China has warned President Trump that he is being manipulated by warhawks into believing “conspiracy theories” that Tehran was behind the attack on Saudi oil facilities and that any “revenge attack” on Iran could cause the Middle East to “spiral out of control.”

The warning was contained in an editorial posted by the Global Times, which is widely recognized as a Communist Party mouthpiece.

A drone strike against two Saudi oil facilities by Houthi rebels on Saturday took out 5% of the world’s oil supply, but U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo immediately blamed Tehran for the attack.

In the Global Times piece, Beijing asserts that there is no evidence Iran was responsible and that, “US military revenge against Iran will lead the Middle East to spiral out of control.”

The strikes which paralysed the Saudi oil industry on Saturday morning, forcing it to halve its output of crude oil, were made by Iranian drones launched from Hashd al-Shaabi bases in southern Iraq, a senior Iraqi intelligence official has told Middle East Eye.

The attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais, two key Aramco facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia, were in retaliation for Israeli drone strikes on Hashd al-Shaabi bases and convoys in August, which were co-ordinated and funded by the Saudis, the official said.

“The latest attack comes for two reasons: another message from Iran to USA and its allies that as long as its siege on Iran continues no one will have stability in the region. However, the second more direct reason is a strong Iranian revenge for the recent Israeli attacks by drones launched from SDF-controlled areas in Syria against pro-Iranian Hashd bases,” he said.

Iraq categorically denied any involvement after an anonymous Iraqi intelligence official told Middle East Eye that the strikes were launched from Iraqi territory and were in retaliation for Saudi-funded Israeli drone strikes in August on Iranian-trained forces in Syria.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince has told US President Donald Trump the kingdom was "willing and able" to respond to the latest attacks claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels on its oil facilities, state media reported.

"The kingdom is willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ( MBS) told Trump during a phone call on Saturday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

MBS was referring to drone attacks earlier in the day on two state-owned Saudi Aramco oil facilities, which triggered enormous fires and disrupted global energy supplies.

Despite US officials repeatedly over the weekend claiming they were "certain" attacks came from Iraqi soil, likely from Iran-backed militias acting as proxies, they've now changed their tune to line up behind the latest Saudi military assessment.

US officials have told FOX that the attacks originated from Iranian soil, which is the first time such a direct charge has been issued since the early Saturday morning crisis.

The United States has issued satellite images and cited intelligence to back its allegation Iran was behind attacks on major Saudi oil facilities.

Iran denies involvement in Saturday's air attacks, which were claimed by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen.

But unnamed US officials speaking to US and international media say the direction and extent of the attacks cast doubt on Houthi involvement.

The incident has cut global oil supplies by 5% and prices have soared.

President Trump is using the phrase “locked and loaded” to describe our current stance toward Iran, and the big news networks appear to believe that some sort of U.S. military action could be imminent.

We just witnessed the worst attack on Saudi oil production facilities in history, and it would seem to be extremely unlikely that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia would allow this to pass with no response. Houthi rebels in Yemen have publicly taken responsibility for the attacks, but as you will see below, U.S. officials have already completely rejected that explanation for a variety of reasons. At this point, we are being told that the attacks probably originated either from Iranian-backed Shia rebels in southern Iraq or from Iran itself. And if the U.S. strikes back by conducting airstrikes inside Iran, that could literally cause World War 3 to erupt. We are so close to a major war breaking out, but most Americans are still not paying attention.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has called on the U.S. administration to send a message to Iran by bombing the Islamic Republic’s oil refineries.

“Iranian supported Houthi rebels who attacked Saudi oil refineries is yet another example of how Iran is wreaking havoc in the Middle East. The Iranian regime is not interested in peace – they’re pursuing nuclear weapons and regional dominance,” Graham tweeted on Saturday.

Jerusalem Post Middle East

Attack on Saudi was large and sophisticated, satellite images show, and involved numerous drones.

Satellite images released by US officials on Sunday showed the extent of damage on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing facility and at Khurais oil field. The images show 17 impact points on key petroleum infrastructure, including four hits on liquefied natural gas storage tanks.

The images reveal extreme precision by the drones or cruise missiles which struck the oil facilities. ABC News reported on Monday that officials have ascertained that a dozen cruise missiles and 20 drones were fired in the attack. This degree of sophistication is beyond the ability of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, notwithstanding their claim of responsibility.

Following the early morning attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing facility—the largest oil processing plant in the world—and a similar drone attack at the Khurais oil field on Saturday, the neocon senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, has called for attacking Iran.

Trump supporters should let Trump hear from them as he is about to commit the United States to a war of Israel’s choosing. A mutual defense treaty between the US and Israel would give Israel the ability to commit the US to a war in Israel’s behalf.

Remember history. It was British prime minister Chamberlain’s guarantee to Poland that started World War II. The idiot British lost control over their own policy and gave it to a crazed and irresponsible Polish military dictatorship.

The attack on the Saudi oil fields that Trump and Israel are blaming on Iran is almost certainly an attack by Israel. The attack is being used to start a war with Iran.

When Saudi oil refineries were struck by a drone attack on Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was quick to declare Iran responsible. This was par for the course for Pompeo, who has long been the driving force in pushing the US toward military action against Iran.

Iran rejected the accusation, saying that the US allegations were “meaningless” and just meant to justify military action. Officials also presented it as a continuation of US “deceit” about Iran.

Iran dismissed accusations by the United States that it was behind attacks on Saudi oil plants that disrupted world oil production and warned on Sunday that U.S. bases and aircraft carriers in the region were in range of its missiles.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attacks that knocked out more than half of Saudi oil output. But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was no evidence the attacks came from Yemen and accused Iran of “an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”

The scope and precision of attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities suggest the launch was not made by Houthis and came from a west-northwest direction, not south from Yemen, a U.S. official said on Sunday.

“There’s no doubt that Iran is responsible for this. No matter how you slice it, there’s no escaping it. There’s no other candidate.

A drone attack this weekend shut down half of Saudi Arabian oil production.

The US blamed Iran for the attack.

And later today the United States released satellite pictures showing th surgical strike on the oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia.

Yemen's military has warned foreigners in Saudi Arabia to leave Aramco's oil processing plants, saying they are still a target and can be attacked "at any moment."

The warning came after Houthis and their allies in the Yemeni army deployed as many as 10 drones to bomb Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by the Saudi state-owned oil company before dawn Saturday.

Spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, General Yahya Sare'a, said in a tweet Monday that the attacks in the kingdom's eastern region had been carried out by drones with normal and jet engines.

He said Saudi Arabia should stop its "aggression and blockade on Yemen," or see the Yemeni army hit the kingdom "anywhere and anytime" it chooses.

For many of the national security teams that monitor threats on the U.S., the apparent drone strike Saturday on the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil production facilities was the realization of their worst fears.

Based on early reports, multiple relatively inexpensive drone devices were able to pierce Saudi defenses in a way that a traditional air force could not: flying long distances to drop potent bombs that apparently set vast portions of the Saudi petroleum infrastructure ablaze.

The attack, for which Houthi rebels battling Saudi Arabia in Yemen took credit, underscored the fears raised by U.S. security officials and experts in terrorism about the rapid evolution of technologies allowing expanded unmanned flight.

Washington has blamed Iran for this weekend's attack on Saudi Arabia's oil production facilities, which are expected to cut Saudi oil output in half until repairs can be completed. The attack was purportedly carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have a long history of launching attacks on Saudi soil. But President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have placed blame for the attacks squarely on the Iranians. As we noted over the weekend, the timing of the attack is suspicious, coming as the kingdom renews its push to float 5% of Aramco in what's expected to be the largest-ever IPO. The offering would benefit from higher oil prices. Many have questioned why Saudi Arabia's missile defense capabilities failed to stop the attack.

Iran has denied any responsibility for the attack.

This weekend's attack wiped out 5% of the world's oil supplies.

Just as the price of oil was settling down from its record surge, it spiked once again, following a tweet by president Trump which has made war with Iran virtually inevitable.

Just before 7pm, Trump tweeted that "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!"

Setting aside the implicit admission that US foreign policy in the middle-east is now inexplicably run by Saudi Arabia, what is far more troubling is Trump's statement that the US military is "locked and loaded", and set to attack the country which instigated the attack on Saudi facilities, which according to Mike Pompeo was not Yemen, and its Houthi rebels, but rather Iran.

The statement comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday blamed Iran for recent drone attacks on Saudi Aramco's oil fields, urging the international community "to publicly and unequivocally condemn Iran’s attacks".

Tehran has always been prepared for a full-fledged war, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force Chief Amirali Hajizadeh said in a statement on Sunday, just a day after two drone attacks on oilfields in Saudi Arabia, which were claimed by Houthis and blamed by the US and Saudi Arabia on Tehran.

“Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers, at a distance of up to 2,000 kilometres around Iran, are within the range of our missiles,” Hajizadeh said.

According to Hajizadeh, the Iranian military are ready to target two US bases and one carrier in the event of an armed conflict.

Trump says he hates the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran. But he’s toying with a French proposal to get the Iranians to comply with it: a $15 billion line of credit to Tehran.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who helped sell the ill-fated 2003 Iraq War as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, sees disturbing similarities between the build-up to the Iraq War and current efforts to get the U.S. entangled in a military confrontation with Iran. On June 28, Wilkerson joined journalist Mehdi Hasan’s “Deconstructed” podcast to reflect on the current warmongering efforts of the Trump administration.

As in 2003, Wilkerson said “raw and unfinished” intelligence is currently being used to push pro-war narratives. In the build-up to the Iraq War, he noted, Paul Wolfowitz of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans fed Vice President Dick Cheney with unfinished intelligence to help sell the war. Today, Wilkerson observed that “think thanks” such as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies are being similarly used to provide the administration with intelligence and analysis that is unsound, but fits their hawkish policy desires.

Iran’s top commander says the Islamic Republic attaches high significance to the promotion of ties with China in different sectors, including military.

“Iran attaches great significance to its relations with the People’s Republic of China in all areas. We have long-standing ties in the military sector as well, and we hope this visit can be a turning point in the development and reinforcement of the relations,” Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said.

He made the remarks in a meeting with General Li Zuocheng, the chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, in the Chinese capital Beijing on Wednesday.

He said Iran and China have maintained and strengthened their ties over the past four decades, stressing they now enjoy deep-rooted relations.

Golly, whoever leaked this to Bloomberg must have been pretty high up the food chain to know what the president was thinking on a matter as sensitive as Iran diplomacy.

And they must have a pretty sizable axe to grind with him if they’re willing to make him sound this weak, particularly in comparison to Bolton.

Any theories? Do any current or former disgruntled national security aides with a reputation for score-settling in the press present themselves as logical suspects?

The post-Bolton era will be a golden age of natsec leaking, my friends.