Saudi Arabia Says No to War With Iran, Vows Strong Response
Saudi Arabia does not want a war with Iran but will respond “with strength and determination” if Iran decides to start one.
(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia does not want a war with Iran but will respond “with strength and determination” if Iran decides to start one, a top Saudi official said on Sunday.
“We don’t want a war in any way, but at the same time we won’t allow Iran to continue its hostile policies toward the kingdom,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh early Sunday morning. “We want peace and stability.”
The commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Hossein Salami, said his country isn’t looking for war but isn’t afraid of a confrontation, either. Recent incidents have “made the extent of the enemy’s strength clear,” he said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Tensions in the Gulf have escalated significantly over the past two weeks after the U.S. accelerated the dispatch of an aircraft carrier and moved B-52 bombers to the region. It cited intelligence reports of unspecified threats from Iran that have been disputed by some key allies.
Sabotaged Ships
Last week, several ships, including two Saudi vessels, were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates as they made their way toward the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s foremost oil shipping chokepoint.
Al-Jubeir began his press conference -- called suddenly after midnight -- by listing a series of terrorist attacks in which he said Iran had played a role over the past few decades.
The Iranian government “is not looking for stability or security in the region,” he said, adding that Yemen’s Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, had launched more than 200 missiles into Saudi Arabia over the past few years. The Houthis also were behind a drone attack on Saudi oil installations last week, in which the drones were supplied by Iran, he claimed.
The assaults on the two Aramco oil-pumping stations forced the temporary closing of an important east-west pipeline in the kingdom and added to growing friction in the Gulf, where the U.S. has tightened sanctions against Iran, demanding it stop supporting militias across the Middle East, including the Houthis.
The Saudi pipeline has since reopened, but officials from all sides have warned that recent events have left the region at risk of sliding into a potentially devastating international conflict.
“We won’t stand with our hands bound,” Al-Jubeir said. “The ball is in Iran’s court and Iran should determine what the path will be.”
The United Arab Emirates and other countries are still investigating the attacks on the ships, Al-Jubeir added.
“We have some indications and we will make the announcements once the investigations are complete,” he said.
No Immediate Threat
Several U.S. policy makers have insisted that war with Iran isn’t an immediate threat, unless Tehran strikes first.
Former U.S. CIA Director David Petraeus said during an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that it didn’t seem the sabotage actions would provoke the U.S. “to do something very significant.” Iran would likely have to seek back-channel diplomacy with President Donald Trump to relieve economic pressure, he said.
Trump is wary of drawing the U.S. into a war with Iran, in part out of concern that it would imperil his chances of re-election, even as National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other administration officials have recently warned Iran in increasingly bellicose language.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he didn’t believe Trump, Bolton or “anyone else in a serious senior position of leadership in the White House has any interest in going to the Middle East and going to war” short of an attack by Iran.
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said there is evidence of an increased threat from Iran. But it’s the administration’s rhetoric and actions such as withdrawing from the nuclear deal that has increased the chances for confrontation, he said.
‘Potential Catastrophe’
“This ratcheting up of tensions was all-too predictable, all-too calculated by people like Bolton and Pompeo, and it has led us to the precipice of potential catastrophe,” Schiff said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Senator Tom Cotton told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S. “is not going to take the first strike here.”
“But if Iran attacks the United States or our allies in the first strike, then it will be up to America in a time and a manner of our choosing to take the last strike because our military will devastate theirs,” the Arkansas Republican said.
Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz has called on the Gulf Cooperation Council members and Arab countries to hold emergency meetings on May 30 over the recent attacks, according to the foreign affairs ministry. The attacks have dangerous implications on oil supplies and the stability of global oil markets, and could harm regional and global security, the ministry said.
Asked about recent accusations that Norwegian intelligence had warned an Arab activist in Oslo, Iyad Al-Baghdadi, about a potential threat to him from Saudi Arabia, Al-Jubeir said he hadn’t heard of Al-Baghdadi.
“It might be his goal to get permanent residency in a certain country, but we don’t have any information on him,” Al-Jubeir said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette, Kevin Miller
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