Us sending troops to Gulf, Trump admits Iran sanctions
Washington: The United States declared Friday that it was sending military reinforcements into the Gulf region following attacks on petroleum facilities which it attributes to Iran, just hours after President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran.
Trump said the sanctions were the toughest-ever against the other country, but he didn’t plan a military attack, calling a sign of power.
The Treasury Department renewed activity against Iran’s central banking after US officials said Tehran completed weekend attacks on rival Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, which triggered a spike in global crude prices.
Those attacks, together with an Iranian assault on an American spy drone in June, represented a”dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said.
However, Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford categorized the deployment as”moderate,” together with the number of troops not expected to achieve the tens of thousands. Earlier in the afternoon, Trump attacked both critics who thought the mogul-turned-president would trigger war and hawks looking for a military reaction.
“The simplest thing I could do (is) knock out 15 different important things in Iran,” Trump said.
“But I think the strong-person strategy and also the thing that does show strength will be revealing just a little bit of restraint,” he explained. Trump in June approved a military attack later Iran shot down the US spy drone, simply to call it off at the final moment.
Saudi Arabia on Friday revealed extensive damage from the strikes on country giant Aramco’s centers in Khurais and the world’s biggest oil processing centre at Abqaiq.
The attacksthat knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, have been claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, however, Washington has pointed its finger at Tehran, condemning the attacks as an”act of war”
Abqaiq was struck 18 occasions while neighboring Khurais was hit four times in a raid that triggered numerous explosions and towering flames that required the time to extinguish, Aramco officials said.
Aramco flew heaps of journalists to the two websites to reveal it had been speeding up fixes, giving uncommon access into the neural center of the world’s largest oil producer as it attempts to shore up investor optimism ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO).
Meanwhile, the Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who have targeted crucial Islamic heritage in recent months in cross-border strikes, suddenly announced late Friday they planned to halt all strikes on the country.
The movement, they explained, was a part of a peace of mind to end their country’s devastating conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people — most of them civilians — and pushed tens of thousands more to the verge of famine. Iran denies US and Saudi accusations it arms the Huthis.
America already maintains sweeping sanctions on Iran including on its own principal bank, with anyone who deals with it subject to prosecution, even due to Tehran’s alleged nuclear programme.
But the new sanctions Friday were enforced for the further reason of “terrorism,” Treasury said, adding that Iran’s central bank had provided”billions of dollars” to 2 groups blacklisted by the United States.
America also imposed sanctions on Iran’s autonomous wealth finance, whose board of trustees comprises President Hassan Rouhani, in addition to Etemad Tejarate Pars, a company the Treasury Department stated had sent money globally on behalf of Iran’s defense ministry.
Trump recently said that he hopes for discussions with Rouhani, who reacted that Trump must first facilitate sanctions.