WASHINGTON – The US military is preparing a response to the recent Yemenidrone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, Defense Secretary MarkEsper has said.
Esper briefed US President Donald Trump in the White House on Mondayfollowing the attacks on two Saudi Aramco oil facilities on Saturday thatknocked out more than half the kingdom’s production.
Yemen’s Houthi fighters have claimed responsibility for the attack, but theUnited States has rejected their claim with Trump saying that Iran appearsto be responsible for the strike.
Esper did not directly put blame on Iran for the attack but accused it ofundermining international order.
“The United States military, with our interagency team, is working with ourpartners to address this unprecedented attack and defend the internationalrules-based order that is being undermined by Iran,” he said in a tweet.
Esper said he and the Pentagon leadership met with Trump in the wake ofSaturday’s attack.
Read Top Stories
Following a briefing from his military and intelligence advisers at theWhite House on Monday, Trump was asked whether Iran was behind the attack,Trump said, “It’s certainly looking that way at this moment and we’ll letyou know. As soon as we find out definitively we’ll let you know but itdoes look that way.”
A day earlier, Trump said the United States was “locked and loaded” for apossible response to the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities.
Trump said that Washington has a “reason to believe that we know” who isresponsible for the attacks carried out against the kingdom’s key oilfacilities in Abqaiq and Khurais on Saturday.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put the blame for the operation on Iran,claiming, “Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia” and that“there is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
