More US troops in Gulf

The United States has announced that it was sending military reinforcements to the Gulf region following attacks on Saudi oil facilities that it attributes to Iran, just hours after President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran.

The developments triggered a furious response from Iran.  The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards yesterday said Iran will pursue any aggressor, even it carries out a limited attack, and seek to destroy it.

“Be careful, a limited aggression will not remain limited. We will pursue any aggressor,” the head of the Guards, Major General Hossein Salami, said in remarks broadcast on state TV. “We are after punishment and we will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor.”

On Friday, Trump said the sanctions were the toughest-ever against another country, but indicated he did not plan a military strike, calling restraint a sign of strength.

The Treasury Department renewed action against Iran’s central bank after US officials said Tehran carried out weekend attacks on rival Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, which triggered a spike in global crude prices.

Those attacks, combined with an Iranian attack on an American spy drone in June, represented a “dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said.

The Pentagon chief announced that the United States would send military reinforcements to the Gulf region at the request of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“In response to the kingdom’s request, the president has approved the deployment of US forces, which will be defensive in nature, and primarily focused on air and missile defense,” Esper said.

However Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford categorized the deployment as “moderate,” with the number of troops not expected to reach the thousands.

Earlier in the day Trump attacked both critics who thought the mogul-turned-president would trigger war and hawks seeking a military response.

“The easiest thing I could do (is) knock out 15 different major things in Iran,” Trump said.

“But I think the strong-person approach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint,” he said.

Trump in June authorized a military strike after Iran shot down the US spy drone, only to call it off at the last moment.

Saudi Arabia on Friday revealed extensive damage from the strikes on state giant Aramco’s facilities in Khurais and the world’s largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq.

The attacks, which knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, have been claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, but Washington has pointed its finger at Tehran, condemning the strikes as an “act of war.”

Abqaiq was struck 18 times while nearby Khurais was hit four times in a raid that triggered multiple explosions and towering flames that took hours to extinguish, Aramco officials said.

Washington has imposed a series of sanctions against Tehran since unilaterally pulling out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May last year.

It already maintains sweeping sanctions on Iran’s central bank, but the US Treasury said Friday’s designation was over the regulator’s work in funding “terrorism”.

The “action targets a crucial funding mechanism that the Iranian regime uses to support its terrorist network, including the Qods Force, Hezbollah and other militants that spread terror and destabilise the region,” said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Qods Force is the Guards’ foreign operations arm, while Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite militant group closely allied with Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the new sanctions meant the United States was “trying to block the Iranian people’s access to food and medicine”.

It showed the US was in “despair” and that “the maximum pressure policy has reached its end,” semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying from New York.More US troops in Gulf

Trump sends military reinforcements after attack on Saudi

oil heartland, slaps sanctions; Iran warns against aggression

AFP, WASHINGTON

The United States has announced that it was sending military reinforcements to the Gulf region following attacks on Saudi oil facilities that it attributes to Iran, just hours after President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran.

The developments triggered a furious response from Iran.  The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards yesterday said Iran will pursue any aggressor, even it carries out a limited attack, and seek to destroy it.

“Be careful, a limited aggression will not remain limited. We will pursue any aggressor,” the head of the Guards, Major General Hossein Salami, said in remarks broadcast on state TV. “We are after punishment and we will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor.”

On Friday, Trump said the sanctions were the toughest-ever against another country, but indicated he did not plan a military strike, calling restraint a sign of strength.

The Treasury Department renewed action against Iran’s central bank after US officials said Tehran carried out weekend attacks on rival Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, which triggered a spike in global crude prices.

Those attacks, combined with an Iranian attack on an American spy drone in June, represented a “dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said.

The Pentagon chief announced that the United States would send military reinforcements to the Gulf region at the request of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“In response to the kingdom’s request, the president has approved the deployment of US forces, which will be defensive in nature, and primarily focused on air and missile defense,” Esper said.

However Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford categorized the deployment as “moderate,” with the number of troops not expected to reach the thousands.

Earlier in the day Trump attacked both critics who thought the mogul-turned-president would trigger war and hawks seeking a military response.

“The easiest thing I could do (is) knock out 15 different major things in Iran,” Trump said.

“But I think the strong-person approach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint,” he said.

Trump in June authorized a military strike after Iran shot down the US spy drone, only to call it off at the last moment.

Saudi Arabia on Friday revealed extensive damage from the strikes on state giant Aramco’s facilities in Khurais and the world’s largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq.

The attacks, which knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, have been claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, but Washington has pointed its finger at Tehran, condemning the strikes as an “act of war.”

Abqaiq was struck 18 times while nearby Khurais was hit four times in a raid that triggered multiple explosions and towering flames that took hours to extinguish, Aramco officials said.

Washington has imposed a series of sanctions against Tehran since unilaterally pulling out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May last year.

It already maintains sweeping sanctions on Iran’s central bank, but the US Treasury said Friday’s designation was over the regulator’s work in funding “terrorism”.

The “action targets a crucial funding mechanism that the Iranian regime uses to support its terrorist network, including the Qods Force, Hezbollah and other militants that spread terror and destabilise the region,” said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Qods Force is the Guards’ foreign operations arm, while Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite militant group closely allied with Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the new sanctions meant the United States was “trying to block the Iranian people’s access to food and medicine”.

It showed the US was in “despair” and that “the maximum pressure policy has reached its end,” semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying from New York.