Saudi seeks oil supply protection as US and Iran face off
Saudi Arabia called for swift action to secure Gulf energy
supplies, after the United States blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in
a vital oil shipping route that have raised fears of broader confrontation in
the region.
Thursday’s tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman exacerbated
the antagonistic fallout from similar blasts in May that crippled four vessels.
Washington, already embroiled in a standoff with Iran over its nuclear program,
has blamed Tehran.
Iran has denied any role in the strikes on the tankers south
of the Strait of Hormuz, a major transit route for oil from Saudi Arabia, the
world’s biggest crude exporter, and other Gulf producers.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said “there must be a
rapid and decisive response to the threat” to energy supplies, market stability
and consumer confidence after the attacks in the Gulf area, the Saudi Energy
Ministry reported on Twitter.
The US military released a video on Thursday, saying it
showed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were behind the explosions that damaged the
Norwegian-owned Front Altair and the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous.
“Iran did do it and you know they did it because you saw the
boat,” US President Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday.
The United States has tightened sanctions on Iran since Washington
withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and global powers last year.
Washington’s stated aim is to drive Iranian oil exports, the mainstay of its
economy, to zero.
Tehran has said that if its oil exports were halted, it
could block the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel of water separating Iran and
Oman through which a fifth of the oil consumed globally passes.
ENERGY SECURITY
Oil prices have climbed 3.4% since Thursday’s attacks. Ship
insurers said insurance costs for ships sailing through the Middle East have
jumped by at least 10%.
“The kingdom is committed to ensuring stability of global
oil markets,” the Saudi energy minister said in Japan at a meeting of energy
ministers from the G20 group of nations.
Japanese Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said ministers
agreed on the need to “work together to deal with the recent incidents from
(an) energy security point of view.”
Trump, who pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal
under which world powers agreed to ease international sanctions on Iran in
return for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear work, said any move to close the Strait of
Hormuz would not last long.
He also said he was open to holding talks with Iran,
although Tehran said it had no plans to negotiate with the United States unless
it reversed a decision on the nuclear deal.
Tehran and Washington have both said they have no interest
in a war. But this has done little to assuage concerns that the arch foes could
stumble into conflict.
A US official told Reuters a surface-to-air missile was
fired from Iranian territory on Thursday morning at a US drone that was near
Front Altair following the attack on the tanker. The missile did not hit the
drone, the official said.
US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the United States
was “planning various contingencies” when asked if more military forces would
be sent to the area, but added that the focus was on building an international
consensus.
“We also need to broaden our support for this international
situation,” he told reporters.
RESTRAINT
As well as blaming Iran for the tanker attacks, Washington
has also said Tehran was behind May 14 drone strikes on two Saudi oil-pumping
stations. Tehran has denied all those charges.
Britain has backed the United States in blaming Iran for the
tanker attacks, saying no other state or non-state actor could have been
responsible.
But others have urged caution. Germany said the video was
not enough to prove Iran’s role, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
called for an independent investigation to determine responsibility.
China and the European Union called for restraint.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani renewed Iran’s threat to
continue scaling back compliance with the nuclear deal unless other signatories
to the pact show “positive signals”.
He did not specify what Iran wanted in his comments to a
meeting of Asian leaders in Tajikistan.
France and other European signatories to the nuclear deal,
have said they wanted to save the accord, but many of their companies have
canceled deals with Tehran, under pressure from the United States.