At three in the morning last Saturday, residents of the Saudi city oil field Hail was woken not by the predawn call to prayer.
A series of huge explosions at the refinery raised in the air flames to a height of thirty feet.
Events in this city have shocked world oil prices and sharply raised the stakes in the ongoing tensions betweenUSA and Iran.
Hail (Abqaiq) is the largest refining center in Saudi Arabia: every day there are processed 5.7 million barrels of crude oil. Then the refined products are shipped by pipeline to petrochemical plants or oil tankers on the coast of Saudi Arabia, destined for Western countries.
The Kingdom produces about 10% of the crude oil in the world, so the bombings had an immediate impact on world oil prices. At some point the price rose by 20%, from $60 to $72 per barrel.
Hail was not the only goal that night the drones hit the field Khurais.
Drone attacks on two factories in Saudi Aramco Khurais provinces between Abqaiq and sparked fires that the state oil company brought under control, the Saudi interior ministry spokesman said. More here: https://t.co/kGN6ZrIosg pic.twitter.com/2IiFRVXUWh
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 14, 2019
Saudi Arabia and the United States are convinced that the attack was the work of Iran, refusing to believe the allegations that rebels from Yementhat are currently engaged in a brutal civil war against the government with the support of the Saudi-led military coalition have the equipment and skills to carry out such a sophisticated attack.
U.S. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo said bluntly that Iran must be «held accountable for its aggression». Meanwhile the elite guards of Iran announced that is ready for «full-scale war.»
News SMI2
The US claim that satellite images show explosions 19: drones have been launched from Iran or Shiite militants in Iraq.
BREAKING: U.S. government releases satellite pictures showing the surgical strike against the Saudi oil facility of between Abqaiq — direct hits on the critical spheroids used to treat the crude | #OOTT #SaudiArabia 🇸 🇦 🛢 ⛽ Now Here’s our latest update with @nayrazz https://t.co/ZMb9BRaN5f pic.twitter.com/l7xNIaLcIw
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) September 15, 2019
Anyway, these attacks put President trump in a very difficult position.
From the beginning of his presidency, he exerted maximum pressure on Iran and led the United States out of the nuclear deal in 2015, introducing more severe sanctions to prevent Iran exporting oil.
But if the US attacked Iranian oil fields and refineries, it would hurt their allies, such as India and Japan, which, along with China are still buying Iranian oil, bypassing the sanctions by avoiding payments in U.S. dollars or using a barter system.
This, according to experts, will lead to further growth of the world prices for oil and gasoline ahead of the presidential election of 2020. US consumers have already felt the negative effect of a «trade war» with China.
Moreover, despite its bellicose rhetoric, trump is actually trying to retain the role of peacemaker, and this desire has seen politicians in connection with the dismissal of national security Advisor – «hawk» John Bolton.
In Iran there are 523 thousand soldiers, and the head of the aerospace command of Iran’s Revolutionary guards warned that a ballistic missile the country can hit American bases around the Persian Gulf and aircraft carriers at ranges of up to 1212 miles.
In addition, Iran will not remain without allies. Political analysts say that Russia will not be a passive spectator, if trump were to attack Iran, and then in the middle East could start a real Armageddon.
