Saudi Arabia’s Vice Minister for Defense, Khalid Bin Salman, has accused Iran of ordering its Yemeni Houthi proxy group to attack two oil pumping stations near Riyadh earlier this week.
Prince Khalid, the brother of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, said in a tweet that Tuesday’s drone attacks on the two Aramco installations were “ordered by the regime in Tehran, and carried out by the Houthis. These militias are merely a tool that Iran’s regime uses to implement its expansionist agenda in the region.”
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir likewise tweeted an accusation that the Houthis are “an indivisible part of #Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (#IRGC) and subject to the IRGC’s orders.”
The IRGC was added by the Trump administration to the Foreign Terrorist Organization list in the United States several weeks ago.
The attack on the pumping stations forced the east-west pipeline to close while assessments and repairs were made. The pipeline has since reopened, but officials are warning the region is edging closer to an all-out conflict with Iran.
The OPEC group of oil exporting nations is gathering in Jeddah this weekend, and is likely to discuss the rising tensions in the region, along with the rise in the price of crude that has taken place as a result.
The U.S. this week also said it has satellite images of Iranian commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf that were modified, with large areas of their decks removed, and that it believes are carry missiles and other munitions. Those freighters were seen moving in and out of Iranian ports in recent days, according to a U.S. official who spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity.
Iranian naval forces have also significantly increased their presence in the Strait of Hormuz in the past two weeks. It has been previously reported that small Iranian boats called “dhows” have been transporting missiles around the Persian Gulf.
President Donald Trump has reportedly been concerned over heated discussions among his advisers and worried the United States could be rushed into a military confrontation with Iran. The president allegedly wishes to pursue a diplomatic approach to easing tensions, according to a report by The Washington Post. The account, however, was denied by National Security Council spokesperson Garrett Marquis, who told CNN said the report “doesn’t accurately reflect reality.”